Total Kingdom Hearts
by Jenn the Cat
Summary: So what happens when Gwen loses her heart, Trent is drawn to the dark side, and Cody becomes the new keybearer? A Kingdom Hearts remake with a TDI twist! CxG or TxG? Only the story will tell... Flames accepted.
1. The Dream

**Hey peoples! JTC here at fan fiction writing yet another TDI fic!... Even though I haven't finished any of them yet... Yeah... Just here to say that this fic carries no hints of the events of Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island, thus, this is not canan.**

**Why did I start this fic? I'm a Kingdom Hearts fan and this idea came to my mind long before my account came to be (a.k.a. summer). I decided to get this up before someone else came up with a similar idea and to see if a story like this would survive on the site. Oh, and trust me, this fic will contain anime, manga, and video games you have never seen or heard of before...**

**Finally, DISCLAIMER: I do not own Total Drama Island, Kingdom Hearts, the Disney characters, or any franchises to be mentioned in this fic.**

* * *

Many years ago, there was all but one world. This world was full of many different creatures, people, life, and customs. Although everyone was different, everything lived in perfect harmony.

One day however, people became greedy for land, power, and fortune. Wars began, random fights sought out, and lives were claimed. Soon, darkness engulfed the world. Strange creatures began appearing and caused havoc everywhere they encountered.

However, the world was soon brought back to the light. The hearts of children were filled with happiness, love, and hope. Children had helped rebuild the world. Unfortunately, the world ended up splitting up to several pieces in the process.

The worlds' separation erased all ways of transportation to one another until the darkness would return to the worlds...

Now, we turn to a new story. A story full of hope, friendship, and love. This story is about a fallen contestant from a Canadian reality show. He was not one of the luckiest contestants, but was loved by many. In this story, he will gain the strongest weapon in the universe and will go on an adventure of a lifetime.

**Total Kingdom Hearts**

* * *

_Chapter 1---- The Dream . . ._

Darkness filled the scene as a giant sheet of black covered all there was to see. Slowly, a platform began to rise from the shadows which featured a pink-haired girl wearing jeans and a cropped t-shirt. From an unknown distance, a boy, around 16 of age, fell flat on to the platform.

"Awk, what the heck!?" He turned around around and gazed at the b l a n k scenery in confusion. "Um, where am I?"

Suddenly a voice began calling out to him. _"If you seek to learn your fate, step forward."_

The confused kid watched as three pedestals appeared before his very eyes. One held a broad sword, one held a blue wand with a peculiar symbol at the top, and the last held a sheild with the same peculiar symbol. Deciding that there was no other way to find out about where he was, he began walking towards them.

_"Choose a weapon,"_ the voice instructed.

Figuring the sword was the coolest, he reluctantly picked it up as his reflection shined on to the blade.

"The sword. The bringer of destruction, strength, and courage. Is this the fate you seek?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Very well. Now choose a weapon to discard. Shall you choose to discard wisdom or protection?"

"Well, with the wand I can just use magic to shield myself, bro."

_"... You don't get it do you?"_

"Um, can you just tell me why I'm here?"

As the shield vanished, the voice completely ignored him and said, _"Now the sword to fend off these."_

As soon as the voice vanished, a whole bunch of strange black creatures started moving on the floor looking as if they were part of the platform. As they got closer and closer to him, they began to phase out of the platform and became regular beings. As soon as he began to panic, the sword he had chosen earlier appeared right in his hands. Mostly due to fear, he swung the sword around senselessly and was very lucky that he didn't hurt himself.

While the last one was destroyed, the scenery slowly changed into the classic scene that he was used to. The cabins of Wawanakwa occurred to his eyes along with three of his good friends. Owen, Trent, and Leshawna. He was so relieved that he finally met the comforts of his summer home again and ran up to Owen right away.

"Hey Owen, still psyched that you won TDI?"

"What are you afraid of?"

"What?"

"I said, what are you afraid of? Getting old, being different, or being indecisive?"

"Um, being different, I guess."

"Being different? Why is that so scary?"

"Um, I'll be seeing you then... Weirdo." He began walking away from him but started off for Trent. "Hey Trent, what's up with Owen?"

"What do you want out of life?"

"Huh? Um, to live my dream I guess," he answered nervously.

"Hm, makes sense, I guess."

"Um, I'll go and check out Leshawna now, 'kay?" He ran off quickly, freaked out by his friends' behaviors. He ran up to Leshawna hoping that she would be normal unlike the other two. "Hey Leshawna."

"What's most important to you?"

_Not again,_ he thought. "Friendship," he groaned. "Will someone tell me what's going on here?!"

Suddenly, the Wawanakwa scenery changed back to the darkness. The dirty floor changed back to a platform, this time with a big headed girl with a small body and red hair in small pigtails on it.

"... Oh... That was all part of this... Alright you're really starting to tick me off! Tell me why I'm here and tell me now!" The boy shouted in the sky hoping that the mysterious voice would answer.

_"The answer will be revealed shortly. For now..."_

A giant set of stairs leading to another platform magically appeared before his eyes... Which rolled as if he were getting used to this.

_"If you choose to walk this path, you may not turn back."_

As he continued on, he finally made it on to the platform which contained a picture of a girl who looked a bit like something of a lion. She had big, puffy, brown hair with a feather near the top, a pink dress, and black jeans underneath it. He searched around the platform several times, but with no luck in finding anything. He decided to turn back but was shocked to see that the stairs had disappeared into thin air. "... Oh... So you weren't joking," he whispered uneasily. "... So, will you tell me why I'm here?"

_"You're hopeless."_ Darkness began to linger at the center of platform and began to grow out like the creatures of the first platform had. _"Now that you have made it this far, it's time to test you on the **FINAL TEST!**"_

"Final test?" He stared back at the center of the platform which revealed a gigantic mass of darkness that grew into gigantic creature of darkness which loomed above him ferociously. "... Oh boy." A strange weapon in the shape of a key appeared right in his hands. Without any complaints, he started to attack right away. When it seemed like he had hope, the creature began to grow guts and began to thrash him violently until it began to engulf him in darkness.

He couldn't get himself out of the fist of the creature and was slowly sinking into a strange force which covered his body in darkness causing him to lose his sight, taste, and breathing. It was all over...

"Cody. . . Cody. . ."

"Man, he's really knocked out!"

"Should we just leave him here?"

"No, that would be cruel. Especially on our last day here. Hey, wake up dude!"

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it, but if you didn't, flames are accepted!!**


	2. The Last Day

**Yes, I haven't updated since I started it. Well, along with my creative juices not occurring for a while since the new year rang, as everyone knows, January is mid-term month. Whoop-a-dee-doo. I'll try to update this more frequently on the waiting people's behalf.**

**Oh, I understand that people don't seem to get the concept here. I'm not casting the characters as all the Kingdom Hearts people. If anyone would like to do that, fine by me.**

**Oh, instead of the Disney characters, I'm using Pokemon for Donald and Goofy and the others. Any objections? No? Alright, the verdict has spoken!  
Why am I using Pokemon?... Because I can't keep Donald and Goofy in character, all right!?**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not TDI, Pokemon, or any franchises to be mentioned.**

**

* * *

**

It was another beautiful day at Camp Wawanakwa, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada (or at least as close as it gets at this crappy summer camp). To most, this summer camp was just the area in which their favorite reality TV show, Total Drama Island, took place. To 22 teens and two adults, it was their home for the summer. Here they were, spending their last day on the island. Why were they not at Playa Des Losers you ask?... Well, Owen ate about a hundred cans of baked beans so that place is currently quarentined.

Everyone was up and about, getting ready to say good bye to the friends that they made and hanging out with them overall.

... Well, almost all of them. One of them still isn't up.

"I say we just leave him here," Gwen, a Gothic contestant said.

"Man, I never knew he was this much of a heavy sleeper," Trent, her cool boyfriend said. "Maybe we should throw some water on him or something."

"Already ahead of you," Gwen said as she grabbed out a water bottle from the nearby cooler.

After shaking it up a bit, she opened the bottle and poured the whole thing on to Cody's head. He woke up screaming.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Cody shouted while shivering from the ice cold liquid.

"Well," Trent said while giggling. "It seemed to be the only way to wake you up."

"Guess that contest you and the other boys did last night with Chef's food had something to do with it," Gwen said.

"Oh yeah. Did I win?"

"No, you were the first one to faint. Even Noah went on longer than you."

"You've got to be kidding me..."

* * *

Like it had been since forever, the Pokemon Kingdom was experiencing yet another bright and sunny day. Inside, the kingdom's mystic walks through the corridors for his daily greetings to the king. So who was the mystic? None other than Alakazam!

As he opened the large doors with the help of telekinesis, he said, "Morning your majesty," and awaited for a reply... Which never came.

Confused, Alakazam walked further into the practically silent room. Something just didn't seem right to him.

He walked further into the room, nearing closer towards the chair that the king usually sat in. The chair was facing back which gave a good chance that someone was there. As soon as he stopped walking, the chair began to move to reveal-

"HI!!" cried the high pitch voice of the kingdom's female jester, Skitty. Everyone could tell that she was not normal because she was the only skitty around that had open eyes.

"DWAH!!" Alakazam shouted as he fell over in shock. "Skitty!" He screamed as he got his balance back. "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Oh, I was just hanging around outside when I realized that I was in front of the king's study," Skitty replied rapidly. "So then I walked in, asking him if he wanted to play with me, but he just said that he was on a hurry to get out of here and then he me this piece of paper and told me to give it to you, oh, here it is by the way (hands paper over) and then he-"

**SLAM!**

"... Does this mean you don't want to play with me?!"

Don't be fooled by Alakazam's serious face and demeanor. He was actually quite a comical person, erm, Pokemon. This was shown as he ran through the hall, reaching the gardens. Along the way, he crashed through two flower pots, broke three vases, and nearly ran over five maids.

At the gardens, the leader of the royal guard, Loudred, was snoozing on top of a hedge. Although he was the leader, he wasn't exactly the hard working type and no one exactly knew why the king had appointed him the spot, but since no threat ever came, no one seemed to mind.

"Loudred! Wake up!" The big, purple lump awoke to the image of Alakazam himself. After he gave a big yawn, he lazily said, "Hey, what's up?"

"First of all, two words: Breath. Mints! Second of all, urgent news! The king isn't here right now! He left!"

"So I guess we should go tell Delcatty and Glameow, right?"

"No, absolutely not!" Alakazam said as the two began walking in the halls, talking in a quiet matter.

"Well, why not?"

"If they find out, they're gonna be questioning me and if they question me, I'm gonna make you explain for some reason I don't know. If they question _you_, we're both going down!"

"So we don't tell Queen Delcatty and Glameow?"

"Yes," Alakazam groaned in annoyance. "We are not telling Queen Delcatty and Glameow!!"

"Not telling us, what?"

Apparently, the two had been so intact to the discussion that they didn't notice the two standing right in front of them.

"That the king left the kingdom to go search for something," Loudred answered happily only to have his mouth covered by Alakazam's hand.

"You and your big mouth..."

* * *

After a quite uneventful morning, Cody began hanging out with Gwen and Trent for the day... Or attempting to butt in on their first actual date. Your pick.

By then, Gwen and Trent were growing quite annoyed of the geek interrupting. Gwen just felt like punching him at that very moment while Trent was attempting to be friendly and welcomed him in to their conversations.

"Yeah, so I had this really weird dream last night," Cody said. "There were these weird platforms, this key thing, black creatures, and a voice that was apparently getting annoyed of me speaking."

"It's an allergic reaction to Chef's so called food. Get over it," Gwen groaned.

As Trent and Gwen continued walking aimlessly, Cody sighed in a bit of a depressed way. _Great, now she thinks I'm a nuisance, _he thought to himself with a bit of a melancholy look. _Guess this whole "friends" thing isn't working out for me... Well, at least Trent doesn't seem to mind._

_What a crappy last day..._

"Hey, look at that tree over there," Gwen said in somewhat awe.

Cody picked up his glum head to see that there was something wrong with one of the trees of the Wawanakwa forest... It was as if there was a door painted on it.

Gwen and Trent left a bit later, but Cody stayed for some time longer before heading back to the cabin... There was something strange about that tree... Like the door was real...

* * *

"... So the king left to go find answers to why the stars have all been blinking out lately?" Delcatty asked, not quite sure if she got the whole story straight.

"Apparently," Alakazam answered.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Glameow shouted off. "And what the heck is with all of this crap about finding someone with "the key"?" She continued on. "I mean, I've got a key to my room! Looks like you'll have to follow me and do whatever I say!"

"Glameow..." Delcatty urged.

"And who the hell is this Leon person?"

"Language please..."

"So when do we leave?" Alakazam asked.

"As soon as possible."

"DOES THAT MEAN NOW?!" Loudred shouted when shouting wasn't necessary.

"... Yes, now."

"Breath mints," Alakazam whispered Loudred.

"WHAT?!" He screamed right in front of the mystic.

"... Never mind..."

* * *

After everyone exchanged their numbers to each other, due to a strange turn of events, a huge storm arrived at the island. Chris even said that the boat may even arrive late. As of right now, everyone was in the mess hall.

... Except Cody. He was lying around in the cabin.

He was still a bit upset with the summer that he seemed to have wasted away on the island that didn't really give him any gains.

Not only did he prove to the whole viewing world that he was a desperate, accident prone geek, he also failed to impress the girl of his dreams. Oh, yeah, and he was **mauled by a bear!**

Looking out the window, apparently the boat was just a bit off into the distance and everyone was outside, carrying their luggage. Seeing how he didn't bring any luggage with him when coming to the island (don't know why but he didn't in the first episode) he just decided to walk outside.

The rain from the storm simmered down a little, but there was now huge gusts of wind crashing on to the island. A good portion of the campers presumed that there was hurricane and advised that they just hurry up into the boat and get the **-BLEEP-** off of the island.

Cody looked around, attempting to see one last glimpse of Gwen, but not seeing her in sight... Frankly, Trent didn't seem to be there either... Strange.

"Hey, you seen Trent or Gwen?" Cody said to the closest camper to him... Which was apparently the crazy girl, Izzy.

"Oh, those two? I think Trent ran off to find Gwen," she replied smiling.

"So you don't know where Gwen is?!" Cody shouted above the ferocious wind.

"Nope! But on other news, I'm going to go water skiing with the boat!"

"In the storm?!"

"Yup!!"

Shaking his head, Cody ran off towards the woods in hopes of finding the two.

* * *

The gummi ship was up and ready and both Alakazam and Loudred were ready to go.

"Um Alakazam," Delcatty said.

"Yeah?"

"My sister Skitty will be accompanying you..."

"HI!!" The hyperactive kitten shouted off.

"... Why?"

After pulling him close enough that Skitty wouldn't be able to hear, Delcatty whispered to him, "Look, no one wants her around, so just get her lost while in Traverse Town or something." She then took a brief moment to turn around and smile sweetly to Skitty, then turned back.

"Why aren't you telling Loudred this?"

"He's Loudred. If I tell him, he's going to announce it to the evening news."

"Good call."

As everything was together, the three climbed aboard the ship and got ready to embark on their journey to find the one with the key...

**(A/N: Why yes, this part is suckish. Tell me something I don't know.)**

* * *

Well, the camp's original features were strange enough to begin with, but what was even stranger were the weird creatures appearing everywhere.

A bit in, the techno geek found himself surrounded by black creatures. They seemed almost like shadows as they phased into the ground. Oddly enough, they paid absolutely no attention to him... Strange... They seemed a bit familiar.

_Alright Codester, focus_, he thought to himself as the fleet of the black creatures left.

At this point, he was at the cliff in which the first challenge had occurred. Right near the edge of the cliff stood a dark figure. Knowing that it was one of the two people he was searching for, Cody ran straight up to the tip of cliff to see the back of none other than the love interest of his dream girl... But there was something wrong with him.

"Trent! You gotta help me find Gwen! There are these weird creatures in the forest! She may be in danger!" Cody shouted off, attempting to overpower the thunderous roars of the stregthening storm.

No answer.

"Hello?!"

"... Y'know, what's the point with this world?"

_Huh?_

"I say we just go and forget about everything."

_What the hell is he talking about?!_

"So, what do you say?" Now he turned around... There was definitely something wrong with him. His eye boasted a strange aura withing it... As if this wasn't Trent at all.

As Trent held out his hand, ready to be grabbed, Cody was reluctant in doing anything at the very moment. "What about Gwen?!"

"Don't worry. She'll join us sooner or later."

A strange black darkness soon began to surround Trent... And it was growing larger by the moment. Just as Cody began to reach out for his friend, the darkness consumed the body all together. Cody just stood there, dumbstruck at what had happened at that moment.

_... Did he actually just disappear right now?..._

As he stared at nothing, a gleaming light began appearing at the hand, suspended in the position of when he nearly reached out to join Trent. This caught his attention as soon as he began to feel something right at his palms. Soon, the light disintegrated to reveal a key like blade right at his hands... The same one as his dreams.

He didn't have too much time to admire it, for the black creatures caught his attention... Apparently, they were ganging up on him!

"Oh crap!" He shouted, finally remembering where he had originally seen these creatures... In his haunting dream...

So what did our geeky hero do next? Why, he did exactly what he did in his so called dream! He began attacking senselessly! Smart, ain't he?

... Well, it was good enough to destroy the fleet that was surrounding him, but plenty more started to come near. He had to retreat immediately after the third fleet! Of course that only meant that he was going to go search for Gwen...

After much running later, Cody saw another shadowy figure. This time, it seemed to be a female figure... Gwen!!

As soon as he ran up to her, he completely noticed what she was staring at... The same tree from earlier.

"Gwen!!" He shouted out as soon as the storm began to erupt ligthing on to the island.

All she did was turn her head around. Frankly, she looked much more glum and pale than she usually was. It was strange even for a hardcore goth like she was. In fact, she didn't even look like she was feeling well.

"Cody..." She sighed, barely even audible to the naked ear. As she turned her whole body around, more of her weakness was shown as she began wobbling around...

Then, she just began to collapse.

Cody ran up to prevent her from hurting herself, but as he grabbed her hand, he felt a strange, tingling sensation on his hand which followed by her complete disappearance. Just like Trent... But this one felt more pure...

Confused as he was, he heard screaming in the distance... Screams that seemed far enough to be located at the camp.

_This can't be good._

He looked at the sight of where the others were. It appeared that the boat had finally arrived, but that wasn't what he was staring at... He was staring at the giant, black monster that was towering the 21 people at that area...

_... Well, there goes your chances of a normal life! Either whatever you dream of comes to life, or you're in some messed of fan fiction! Your choice Codemeister!_

The gigantic creature then took notice of the tool that Cody was clutching on to tightly.

_I'll go with inside of a messed up fan fiction._

_

* * *

_

**Bad way to end it, but who the hay cares! Since the next chapter is pretty much Cody's battle with Darkside, I'll have it up sooner than this was up, so stayed tuned!**


	3. Destruction of the Island

**Alright, here's another chap. (cringes in case someone decides to throw a plate of something because she doesn't update any of her fics a lot lately)**

**

* * *

**

A bit after Cody had left to find Trent and Gwen, the storm grew more fierce at the area in which the Dock of Shame was located. Although the boat was still attempting to reach over to the dock, it was struggling to break free from the storm.

As the campers began to draw closer to the boat, the wind grew much too tremendous to withstand, some even beginning to slip on the ground due to it...

Then, something unbelievable happened.

They were all much too preoccupied with staying in balance to notice the huge shadow forming on the ground. Withing seconds, the shadow grew off of the ground and grew up to the size of a ten story building... Darkside.

Finally taking notice of the forming creature (that is, when it finished forming up) due to the wind slightly dieing down, the campers, Chris, and Chef (finally getting the boat to arrive) screamed in complete and utter fear... Except Izzy, she was enjoying every second of what was going on.

"Awesome!!" She screamed over the roaring storm. "I've always wanted to meet a monster!!"

The others were not giving anything close to the same reaction, indefinitely.

After several minutes of dodging attacks that Darkside was shooting on and off, Chris was the first to say something other than a scream. "It's been nice knowing you guys!"

"What are you saying?!" Courtney shouted in reply. "That we're all gonna die?!"

"No, _you're_ all gonna die. Chef and I are gonna get on the Boat of Losers and get the heck out of here!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone, with an exception of few, shouted in unison.

Just as the two were getting close to the dock, the fist of Darkside smashed the Boat of Losers to tiny little pieces, slowly drifting off in the water.

"..."

"..."

Yay! More screaming!!

By this point, Bridgette and Geoff faced each other romantically. "I guess this is it," Geoff said. "We're both gonna die."

After only a few moments of silence between the two, they began making out and fell to the ground, kissing.

Owen dropped to the ground, panting. "Can't. Dodge. Any. More," he groaned in a tired tone.

Luckily for Owen and the others, Darkside looked away from the tired and sore campers. It took interest in something else. No one knew what, but they were just glad that the gigantic figure stepped away to where it took interest at.

"Now's our chance guys!" Harold cried out in order to be heard. "Now we can get the heck out of here!"

"Hey, Einstein," Heather replied in a snarky and sarcastic tone. "The boat's destroyed and with this storm, no one's gonna pick up an SOS message! How do you suppose we get out of here?!"

"..."

"Exactly."

"Besides," Lindsay began. "We can't leave Gretta, Trey, and Cory here," she finished off getting their names wrong as usual.

"Uh, a little problem honey," Noah said in a tone similar to the one that Heather gave out. "No one's seen them since this morning!"

As everyone began arguing on what to do (except Bridgette and Geoff who were still making out on the ground) Izzy silently crept out of the group to see what the creature was so interested in...

* * *

Cody froze in fear as the gigantic creature stood right in front of him, staring the inexperienced fighter down.

"Uh, nice giant monster," he said uneasily like he did to the bear during the challenge he got voted off in. "Um," he stumbled as he randomly picked up some berries on the ground near by. "Ya want some berries?"

In response, the monster punched the ground in which the techno geek was near, missing him by an inch.

"A simple no would have been good," he squeaked. Dropping the berries while still grasping tightly to the over sized key like he had since last chapter, he began running in fear from the giant creature... But due to the size difference, he just knew that he didn't have a chance in outrunning it.

_Okay, enough is enough,_ he thought as he took an abrupt stop, just in time to miss an energy blast that was going to shoot him at where he would've run had he continued. _I gotta stop running! I can't just keep running away from life!... Well, this is technically death, but I'm too young to die! I haven't signed any autographs yet!_

Turning around to face his fate, he reluctantly charged towards Darkside and began attacking the creature rapidly. Some attacks inflicted damage some didn't. No matter what was going on, Cody refused to let down... Until he nearly got hit by a throttling Shadow.

Turning around, he noticed a whole army of the smaller monsters creeping closer to him. After a brief gulp, he began to wonder why he even bothered to get up that day.

_Alright, army or giant creature. Which is more important to kill... Oh who cares, I'm screwed._

Just as he closed his eyes, bracing for the very end, a sudden screech butted in to the army. Wondering what the noise was, he opened his eyes to see none other than the crazy girl fedning them off.

* * *

Izzy's eyes were wide open at the sight. The huge creature was chasing Cody, the guy that was practically missing for most of the havoc that had occurred back at the Dock of Shame. After Cody stopped running, he began charging towards the creature, attempting to take it down.

Izzy's mouth turned to a bright grin at what was going on at the moment.

_Kewl,_ she thought. _Ohmigosh, I never knew I was actually gonna live through a video game! WOO-HOO!!_

Studying the scene more, she managed to spy the strange shadow creatures creeping on the ground, gaining their distance closer and closer to the Gopher that she did not have much contact with throughout the show.

_Oh boy,_ she thought. _Should I help?_

After another scene in which the creatures started drifting to 3-D with one throwing itself towards Cody, she thought again. _... Oh heck, this looks like fun!_ With her mind made out, she grabbed out a paintball gun out of nowhere and charged towards the army with a full-out screech.

* * *

Cody's mouth was wide open upon seeing Izzy helping him out on field. Apparently, the paint in the paintball gun was strong enough to cause the Shadows to disintegrate.

"Well don't just stand there!" She shouted after turning around. "Take down that monster!"

"But," Cody stammered. "You can't take down all of them with just that thing!"

"Oh, you're right!" All of a sudden, Izzy grabbed out a much larger paintball gun out of nowhere, throwing her previous one towards her back.

Shaking his head, Cody got back to beating Darkside. Finally finding the weak spot, Cody rapidly attacked... Until, finally, it began to collapse to the ground and everything whited out...

...

..

.

-

* * *

Off in a dark room somewhere off in a different world, five shadowy figures sat on a rounded table, watching Cody's struggle in what seems like a crystal ball.

"... So," the female one with a head wear that looked like horns bellowed. "The boy got the key..."

"Strange," sad the figure that bore, what seemed like, red horns and a mask. "Thought the other boy would be the one."

"You mean the one that got consumed by the darkness?" Another female voice said, this one coming from a figure with a messy hair style and a face that looked as if she were an old, sewn up doll robot.

"Ptht," another figure, a rather fat one with a huge mustache, replied. "Knew he wasn't the one."

The last figure at the table, looking as if he were digital, said nothing.

"C'mon! Can you at least tell me what you guys are doing Maleficent!" An off screen voice cried out, sounding as if it belonged to a 15-year-old.

"Silence!" The horned female, Maleficent, cried to the voice. "You are strictly an apprentice and we will tell you once you prove yourself!"

"Whatever," she groaned. "God, I should have stayed at Diamond City. At least I had a decent job there..."

Somewhere not too far from the room, seven capsules were placed neatly next to each other. Three contained the pink haired girl, the big headed girl, and the girl with somewhat resemblance to a lion from Cody's dream. Another girl was placed in a capsule as well. She had a white dress frilled with ribbons. She also had matching white, pointed boots, a witches hat with two split ends, and long blond hair in ponytails.

One would wonder what the other capsules would contain...

* * *

**Yay! Time for the fun to begin! Oh, if anyone can tell who the unnamed people are, you get a cookie!**


	4. Transverse in Traverse

**Alright, here's another chapter of TKH coming at you. WARNING: Although he has a pretty minor role in this chapter, Geoff fans may not like how he acts in this chap...**

**I am proud to announce that in March, I'm starting up my first official Gody fic, Be Careful What You Wish For Gwenneth (based on the book and movie, Coraline). Look forward to it!**

**... God, I sound like someone doing the next episode preview thing on Lucky Star...**

**I should stop talking now, shouldn't I?...**

**I'll take that unimpressed look as a yes.**

* * *

Alakazam, Loudred, and Skitty gazed at the streets of the world that they have apparently landed on. Buildings towered the area right after another. People of different species and shapes (most were human, however) were bustling around, shop after shop. Their pale faces looked as if they had not met sunlight for quite some time... As if the world they had landed on was night 24/7.

"... This is it?" Alakazam said. "... Well, ya gotta admit, haven't seen this many humans since they became extinct back at our world."

"Weird," Loudred yawned. "I stayed wild my whole life."

"Never caught?"

"Nope."

"Nice."

"What were you a contest Pokemon?"

"Nope," he answered, shaking his head. "Gym. All the way in Kanto. Had a psychopathic trainer."

During the idle conversation, Skitty looked left to right in a bored face. She wasn't sure what she was looking for... Until it hit her.

"CANDY SHOP!!" In a matter of milliseconds, the hyperactive kitten sped towards the huge store at the other side of town.

"... Thank god she's gone," Alakazam sighed.

* * *

**TRAVERSE TOWN...**

* * *

Off in a dark alley, Cody lay unconscious on the floor, still clutching tightly to the key-like weapon.

...

...

"... Hey, you okay?... Oh well, more candy for me!!" Following that beckoning was a bunch of rude munching and gobbling noises.

_God, what the heck?_ He thought, opening his eyes.

There in front of him was a pink colored cat, munching through a bag full of assorted candy. As it opened its bejeweled eyes, it shouted off, "Morning sleepy head!"

"GAH!" He screamed in response, jumping up and pointing the blade to her. _Holy crap, a talking cat!_

"Hi, I'm Skitty!! Oh cool, a giant key! Y'know, *breath* my friendsare lookingforsomeone withagiantkeytoo ,smallworld,huh?!" She said so fast that it was impossible to understand a word she said.

"... What?" He said in response, tilting his weapon down, seeing as she was more annoying than a threat.

"Hey,wantsomecandy?Ilovecandy!!!!Everyoneathomewon'tletmehaveanybecausetheysayI'm *breath* annoyingas itis ,Nonsenseright?!"

"... What?"

After much more of the messed up conversation, Skitty ran away at the speed of sound screaming "CANDY!!" and "SUGAR!!". This left Cody with a blank face at what had just happened... Of course everyone would have had the same face if they were just confronted by a psychopathic, pink cat.

Shaking it off, he walked out of the dark alley to an area in which most of the campers seemed to have been gathered around. Only about half of the campers were gathered around however.

Some like Heather, Leshawna, Katie, and Sadie were just confused at where they were. Beth and Izzy were in total awe at the creatures that were stopping by. Geoff was, erm, frantically trying to find Bridgette while in total distress. Ezekiel, Noah, Harold, and DJ were, um... Doing whatever they do... No Trent or Gwen.

"So, seeing by the looks on your faces, you're all new here, right?" An unfamiliar voice said. Everyone turned their attention to the boy who had said it, a kid with short, blond hair that looked like that kid from a Final Fantasy game (hint, hint).

Immediately grabbing his arm in a flirty fashion, Sadie giggled, "Um, yeah, so what's your name?"

"Um, Tidus," he said, attempting not to sound creeped out. It was obvious to anyone with expression on his face that he was thinking, _"Who is this freak?"_

"Cool, I'm Sadie," she giggled in reply while Katie was flashing her a thumbs up.

"Uh, anyway," he began, slightly creeped out. "This is Traverse Town, a place where people who have lost their world migrates to."

"Lost their world?" Noah questioned.

"I don't completely get it either... Can someone get this girl off of me?!"

After practically prying Sadie off of Tidus, despite her and Katie's dismay, Geoff frantically asked, "Where's Bridgette?!"

"... Huh? Oh, right, some of your other friends may have landed on a different world." This only made Geoff even more frantic.

"Great," Heather groaned. "Here comes the singing."

Geoff began running around frantically screaming things that made the others embarrassed to have known him. He managed to run towards the Second District in his distress. It was completely silent at first, most glad that Geoff finally left, but the silence was soon broken by sudden screaming in the Second District... Let me guess, Geoff got hit by an old lady?

Everyone decided to run over to see what was going on... Except Heather. She would've cared less on what happened to the party boy... Or anyone in fact.

Well, as it turned out, Geoff wasn't being hit by an old lady like I expected... The ground circling him contained a bunch of short, black creatures.

"Oh crap, not those things again!" Tidus shouted. "Everyone, run for cover!"

While everyone was panicking, running away, or attempting to kill them, but with no luck, Cody just stared at the black creatures in confusion. _Aren't those the creatures back from the island and that messed up dream I had? _He thought.

His train of thoughts were interrupted, however, due to a shadow throttling right towards his face... Let's just say that Lindsay has a bunch of strength when she's scared silly.

"Gah!!" He cried as he fell flat on to the floor. As he kicked the Shadow off and got back on to his feet, the other Shadows gave all of their interests in the other ex-campers (plus Tidus) and stared at Cody... Actually, they were staring at the over sized key he was holding. "Oh crap," he said. "Not again!!"

As he sprinted off, the Shadows were quick to follow. Soon enough, the area looked as if the Shadows never even invaded the area. The others, however, were left with blank faces.

"... When did Cody get that giant key thing?" Beth asked in confusion with everyone shrugging in response. Apparently, no one noticed it 'til now.

"... I say we just forget what happened, alright?" Noah suggested, earning several agreements of his peers.

As they began to get back to what they were doing earlier, Alakazam and Loudred walked by, focused on their conversation more than noticing that there were people there.

"I'm telling you!" Loudred shouted. "We should ask people if they seen someone with a giant key!"

"And you expect anyone to answer something as stupid as that?" Alakazam groaned. "At least we got rid of that annoying Skitty. I mean, what kind of Skitty has its eyes open?"

As the two strange looking creatures walked towards another part of town, the ex-campers (Tidus ran away) just stared into nothingness.

"... Like I said, FORGET EVERYTHING!!"

* * *

Cody was running for his life from the shadow creatures. Along the way, another group of creatures began trailing him. The looked like Shadows except for the fact that they had soldier-like features. He managed to run through a strange looking store, known as The Gizmo Shop, causing the owner to scream in anger of him disrupting his customers and in fear as the creatures followed his every movement.

Meanwhile, Alakazam and Loudred were in a pretty run down hotel.

"So, no one that has a giant key checked in here?" Alakazam asked the lady behind the desk.

"No," she answered behind her magazine reading. "Now would the two of you freaks leave?"

Grumbling, Alakazam and Loudred (duct tape covering his mouth) left the building.

Now back to Cody.

After much more running, he ran towards a door leading to an unknown building... It must have been the back door to either a hotel or an apartment building because the halls were filled with doors. Not wanting anything ugly to happen, he attempted to find the front door as fast as possible. Once he did, however, the lady at the front desk screamed in terror at the sight of the trail of black monsters following him.

Meanwhile, Alakazam and Loudred were in the Gizmo Shop. While Alakazam was talking to the shop owner, Loudred was giving off a muffled tone and attempted to rip off the tape that his so called "friend" put upon him.

"So you didn't see someone holding a giant key?"

"No, but I saw some kid running away from a bunch of those heartless things."

"Yeah," he sighed. "That'll help."

Afterwards, the twosome left the building that "the one with the giant key" just left... Guess this just wasn't their day...

Back to Cody again.

He was getting incredibly tired from all the running, seeing that he may have just ran two miles. He just knew that the distance between him and the creatures were getting shorter and shorter each minute. In response to the pain, he ran into the first building he could find.

SLAM!

As soon as he shut the door, he collapsed on the floor, panting. _... Yeah, people are probably staring at me now,_ he thought to himself.

"Hey, are you gonna buy something or are you just going to lie there and scare the customers, nyo?"

"What costumers, nyu?"

Finally getting the strength back to stand up, he rubbed his head as he stared at two unusual looking girls and a UFO (Unidentified **Floating** Object).

One of the two girls was much taller than the other. She appeared about ten. She had short, bright green hair covered by a white kitty hat complimented by a bell on each side. She also wore a navy blue maid outfit with a giant bell covering her neck. Her gloves and boots looked like parts of a cat and she even had a tail at the back of her outfit.

The other girl was much shorter. So short, she was sitting on the counter. Along with her blank face, she had long brown hair made into two, tiny pigtails near the bottom. Covering her hair was an orange and brown kitty hat with a flower near the top of it. She wore a petite sailor outfit and also had a tail and boots (no gloves) of a cat.

As for the UFO... Well, um, he was a floating yellow ball with an upside down face.

_... Who the heck are these freaks?_

"So, you buying anything, nyo?!" The green haired one said, getting annoyed.

"Th-th-their are black creature things out there," he stammered.

"Yeah right, nyo," she answered as she walked towards the door.

"No, I'm serious!"

As soon as she opened the door, the black creatures just stared in. Almost half a second later, she slammed the door and turned back towards the others with a spooked face. "C-c-c-c-CID!!" She screamed, no, shrieked.

Coming out of the door in the corner of the shop was a man that appeared to be in his twenties. (You know how he looks like. Probably the only people reading have played the game, so I'll be lazy.) "What?!" He shouted in response.

"The heartless are back are they've came back in thirties, nyo!!" She cried in distress.

_Heartless?_

"Degiko, can't you just laser beam them or something?" He groaned.

"... Oh, yeah, nyo. I forgot I could do that, nyo."

Opening the door again to the staring black creatures, she shouted off, "LASER EYE BEAM!!" and in command, a red laser zapped out of her eyes. The others seemed to be casual about this, but Cody's eyes were wide open and his mouth looked as if it wanted to touch the ground.

Slamming, the door, the one known as Degiko sighed in relief and said, "Whelps, that takes care of that, nyo."

_God, I gotta get away from these freaks, _Cody thought to himself as he ran towards the door, opening it and running off into the strange town leaving the four inside the store cold and confused.

* * *

**... I don't think I did too good... But who cares. You get what you pay for. Hop you enjoyed!!**


	5. The Journey Begins

**Man, it's been ages since I've touched this thing. Well, now that I'm here... *starts looking around in case of any incoming food* Alright, jokes aside, let's get this chapter up and running.**

**I am warning you that I will probably unintentionally making the Final Fantasy cast (yes, they stay) OOC. Hope you guys won't mind.**

**... I think my unnanouced hiatus chased all my viewership away :D**

* * *

Alright, so let's recap a bit. Loudred and Alakazam are hopelessly searching for the keybearer while Cody is running away like heck from almost everything.... Man, where does that scrawny kid get all that energy?

... Uh, yeah, I guess we'll pan on to Cody now since the Pokémon duo don't seem to be having much luck in anything as of right now.

After a run in of a strange shop with even stranger workers, the brunette techno geek was left out in the unfamiliar streets of Traverse Town. Occasionally, he ran into more of those black creatures, however, he was able to take a couple down now, seeing as they weren't as tough as he first thought, but overall, he was completely lost. Bet ya wish you didn't run away in the first place now, huh Cody?

"Shut up," he mumbled to the voice in his head that was mocking him relentlessly... which is me. Way to break the fourth wall! : )

He grunted as he walked aimlessly in the streets in hopes that he would run into anyone, ANYONE! Even Heather wouldn't be so bad right now. But most of all, he was hoping that he would, somehow, run into Gwen. Although Tidus had pointed out that she was probably in a different world, whatever that meant, he was still in hope that she was just merely in another part of town. He was incredibly worried about her after that strange thing that occurred back at camp. She was so pale and acting incredibly strange... It was hard not to be slightly worried about the Goth...

... Oh yeah, and he was just slightly worried about his buddy Trent. He was acting strange too... But he can probably fend himself off, who cares.

Thinking about all of this, he stared down at the over sized key-type weapon that he had been lugging around all this time. Thinking more thoroughly, what was going on to him at the time was mostly at the fault of this hunk of junk. Sneering and cursing at the strange item, he took no notice at where he was heading, only to notice when bumping into another person.

"Watch it kid," the man muttered.

"Sorry," Cody mumbled as he finally looked up and snapped out of his trance.

As soon as he rose his head up, he realized that he probably should've been more respectful to the guy... mostly due to how menacing he looked. With his long, raven colored hair and ensemble full of chains and a few buckles, the geek had a bit of a right to be afraid... Of course, it would look quite strange by the fact that he had been staring at the creepy looking dude for more than a minute. Then again, he was also staring at something else... the key that Cody had been clutching on to for quite some time.

Quite awkward to be exact.

"You're the keybearer?" The stranger laughed with an undecided look, finally breaking the silence.

_... What?_

"A scrawny kid like you?"

_WHAT?!_

"Hey, I'll have you know, I'm 16!" Cody answered in defense of the insult.

"Man, even your voice sounds wimpy," he grunted. "Weren't you that kid that ran through the Gizmo Shop? Tired of running yet?"

Stepping back a bit and ready to make another remark, he was met with something incredibly unexpected...

... Something that made him feel as if he just crapped his pants.

A sword. Yup, a sword. Just barely missing his nose. He stared at the tip of the weapon in fright as his eyes widened and crossed.

"Let's see if you really deserve this thing."

Seeing as how Cody was just an amateur at fighting, with most of his fighting experience on the Nintendo Wii, and this scary guy was probably highly skilled at the sort, he was definitely outmatched...

... Yup, it's running time again.

Making a mad dash out of the area, his opponent just stood there a bit flabbergasted for a moment at the quickly recovered stamina of the geek. "How is that kid able to run this much?" he grumbled to himself as he began to catch up with him.

* * *

"This is hopeless!" Loudred shouted off into nothingness.

"Tell me how that duct tape broke again," Alakazam groaned as he began throwing mints into his partner's mouth. "Look, we're gonna find this person. I mean, maybe it's just not our day. How hard can it actually be to find some random person holding a giant key?"

"Well, who would be lugging a giant key in the first place?!"

"... Y'know, you've actually got a point there... Yup, we're screwed," Alakazam sighed in frustration. "Maybe we should go look for this Leon guy then."

Attempting to recall what the letter had described "Leon" to look like, Alakazam found no such luck and, as a last resort, turned to his partner for reassurnce. "Hey, do you remember what that letter said this Leon guy looked like?" He asked hopefully.

"Not really," Loudred answered. "But I brought the letter with me just in case."

"You did? Where is it?"

"I gave it to Skitty."

After Loudred's response, Alakazam stared at him with a nonchalant expression for about half a minute. "You mean the same Skitty I specifically told you we would _ditch_ as soon as we landed here?" He finally asked in a nasty and annoyed tone.

"Yeah, that one!!... Oh... Oops?"

"Wonderful, just wonderful," Alakazam said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes in disgust. "We can't find a kid with a giant key and we can't find this Leon guy. Great, time to go home and have Glameow laugh at our faces for the umpteenth time. This is going to be super fun!" Alakazam screamed with an expression completely full of sarcasm.

"Um, excuse me," a new voice chimed in. "Did you say you were looking for someone named Leon and someone wielding a giant key?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" The psychic Pokemon asked in annoyance as he turned around to see who was eavesdropping... Although, he wished that he may have said it more sincerely, seeing as how kind hearted the person behind him may have been. She had long, brown hair tied up with a scarlet red bow, a set of pink pants and shirt, and a sincere and kind face.

"I know where you might find Leon," she answered warmly.

"You do?!" Loudred screamed followed by the usual remark of "breath mints" from his partner.

"Yes, and I might answer your questions about an individual an a giant key as well. You can just follow me to my hotel room." With that, she walked away to lead the two to the place in which they may actually find some answers to their jumbled up problems.

After a short moment of thought, the duo shrugged to each other and decided to follow the woman's lead...

* * *

Well, Cody knew that logic would return to his stamina level sooner or later. As soon as it did return to the way it should be, he hid away at the closest alley he could find and prayed that that stranger wouldn't find him restoring his energy in a ragged, old box.

Turning his head left and right continuously in an attempt to inspect the area, he rested back into the box, pretty sure that he had lost his chaser severeal blocks ago. _Alright_, he thought. _I'm pretty sure that this alley isn't too far from the place that everyone gathered around earlier. If I just make it out of here strategically-_

"You think you can just hide away like that?" The stranger's voice chuckled as Cody saw a shadow emerge from outside the box.

_Oh crap_, Cody thought in distress. _How did this guy find me?_

"You can't just hide in there forever y'know. I know you're in there."

Sighing in defeat, Cody reluctantly crawled out of his refuge and faced the person that had been chasing him since the beginning of the chapter. "What do you want?"

"Just a test of your skills, that's all," he replied nonchalantly. "I'm not gonna kill you or anything."

_Likely story_, Cody thought as he drew out his weapon. _So this is how I die, huh? Killed by some total stranger for barely even a reason. Nice._

"Glad you're finally seeing it my way," the stranger smirked as he drew out his weapon. Cody didn't remember any pain being inflicted on him, but he did remember seeing the sword ready to slice him in half. After that, everything just blacked out...

* * *

"Ugh, what happened?" Cody moaned as his vision slowly began to blur into focus. Right in front of him, he was shocked at the sight of his Gothic dream girl right in front of his eyes, but still felt too weak to show his shock in his expression. She smiled gently down at him, which almost made this seem like a heavenly dream, but he got himself to believe it was reality.

"You fainted," she giggled. _From the "Eat Chef's Food-a-thon" last night I presume_, Cody sighed. Maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe he was still in Wawanakwa. The background of the old cabin definitely spoke for itself.

"Man, I had such a weird dream last night," he mumbled, loud enough to be heard clearly. "The whole island got attacked by black creatures, I got this weird key thing, and I ended up in a whole different world," he explained, though a tad bit strained.

"I see..."

"And I was really freaked out at the part where you disappeared Gwen."

"Gwen?" The image of what appeared to be Gwen shouted off in disbelief in a much different and young voice. "Who's Gwen? My name's Yuffie!"

_Huh? _Okay, fantasy ended. Although he didn't want this slightly awkward moment to end, his sight finally went back to normal. "Gwen's" teal hair began to tone to the color of black, her skin grew much more tan, her Gothic outfit was replaced with one of a ninja's, and the cabin suddenly turned into the walls of a typical cheap hotel room.

"You really that knocked out?" Yuffie chuckled as Cody began to get off of the bed.

_Figures_, he thought. _Of course it was a hallucination. How could I even think that Gwen would talk to me so kindly like that without a little bit of annoyance?_

"Hey, you alright?" Yuffie asked again, noticing the sullen face that appeared on Cody's face as he came in realization that that could only been a simple hallucination.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," he sighed in defeat shortly following a quick scan of the room. "Um, so where am I?"

"Local hotel. Leon brought you here."

_Leon?_

"Man," she snorted obnoxiously, easily turning into laughter. "I can't believe you got knocked out before he even layed a finger on you! Didn't he say that he wasn't gonna kill you? That sword he was holding was fake you know."

_Oh, so that guy's name was Leon... Right, now I'm starting to remember... And I pretty much just ran away senselessly..._

_If this were a video game, I'd probably be the laughing stock of every forum on the Internet._

"And you were hiding in a box?! Everyone knows only Solid Snake can pull that off!"

_Alright, this girl's really starting to tick me off now._

"Um, so where is this Leon guy right now?"

"Oh, Leon?" Yuffie answered quizzically, making a strangely inhuman halt to her laughter. "I think he went to go get some food. The hotel's holding so many temporary guests right now, everyone whose staying pretty much has to get their own supply of rations," she sighed depressingly. "There were plenty of people here when our world got destroyed, but what's with this really big increasing number? It's just getting ridiculous..."

"Um, sorry to interrupt your depressing rant, but you've really gotten off-topic here."

"Oh, right, Leon!" Yuffie shouted off, now back to her cheerful and cheeky self from before. "Well, like I said, Leon's off getting food. He's been out for a while, so I guess he should be back about-"

**_SLAM!_**

"I'm back," Leon mumbled.

"Now!" Yuffie concluded.

"Oh, looks like Sleeping Beauty finally woke up," he chuckled.

"Sleeping Beauty?" Cody grumbled in annoyance. "You were the one that randomly attacked me."

"And you were the one that pretty much ran away senselessly for the past hour and a half. Got a comeback to that?"

"..."

"Didn't think so."

"Right," he groaned once again. "So, any explanations as to why you and your friend here randomly kidnapped me?"

"Kidnapped you?" Leon scoffed. "What? Would you rather just be out there lying in a questionable alleyway?"

"..."

"Not thinking straight today, are you?" Yuffie giggled.

"Shut up," he mumbled under his breath, his expression changing to a look of remorse. Although Leon, being the jerk he is, paid no attention to the little guy's expression, Yuffie, wondering why everything became silent all of a sudden, decided to see what's up.

"Hey, you okay?" Yuffie asked nervously, certainly not used to comforting people. "You look really glum."

"It's nothing," he sighed in response. "It's just...everything's happened so fast and, well, I don't know."

"Don't worry, I get it," Yuffie smiled encouragingly. "Everyone knows what it's like. None of us here are from this world anyways. Just takes some time getting used to."

"I guess," he sighed again. It wasn't until this moment that he noticed the weapon that got him into this mess was still at his disposal. "Great, now it's stalking me," he muttered.

"Don't know how you got that thing, do you?" Leon responded.

"Um, well-"

"Didn't think so."

"Hey, I wasn't done talking yet!"

"This little portion of events has been carried out a little too long. Just shut up so the author can just get this over with."

"Author? The heck do you me-"

"Just let him explain," Yuffie begged. "Let him QUICKLY explain!" **(A/N: Nyeah :p Wanted to comically inform you people the moment I've been dreading.)**

"Let's begin with the Heartless," Leon began.

* * *

"Heartless?" Alakazam muttered.

"Yes," Aerith responded in a soothing voice. "Heartless are creatures created from pure darkness. They're born without hearts. I'm sure the two of you must have noticed those black creatures around town.

"They prey on the darkness of peoples' hearts and have been known to engulf whole worlds."

"Disappearing stars?" Loudred "whispered" over to Alakazam in his realization. Honestly, it was nowhere close to a whisper unless you're a slightly deaf person that needs help hearing a voice of regular volume and tonality.

"Yeah, I guess you can call them that," Aerith giggled in response, much to the dismay of a groaning Alakazam. In a matter of seconds however, her face was back to a stern and serious mood. "Although it may sound humorous, it's because of the Heartless that caused my friends and I to lose our world."

Awkward silence.

"It all kind of happened so fast... Perhaps it began with Ansem's research..."

* * *

"Ansem?" Cody replied to Leon's explanation.

"Ansem was a famous philosopher from our world," Yuffie answered. "He was supposedly doing some research about the Heartless shortly before our world was consumed, but nobody around here has heard a word about his whereabouts since then."

"Everything seem more clear to you now?"

"Well, I guess," Cody sighed. "But what about-"

"The keyblade?"

"Um, yeah, that."

"That's actually kind of simple," Yuffie began with a slight smirk. "I think you might like this."

* * *

"The two of you said that you're seeking someone known as the 'Keybearer', right?"

"Er, right," Alakazam replied.

"Well, it won't be that hard to find him," she giggled once again.

"Coulda fooled us," Alakazam grumbled in annoyance.

"Yeah, we've searched everywhere for this guy," Loudred added on.

"Really?" Aerith asked quizzically. "Well, perhaps he's not yet here, but the Heartless have great fear towards the Keybearer, so if you spy a huge hoard of them nearby, you'll probably find him."

* * *

"And I'm supposed to like this, how?"

"Uh, well," Yuffie replied with an unprepared answer as she twirled her fingers rapidly. "I don't know. You seem like the kind of person that's into those role playing video games so..."

"But, why me?"

"The Keyblade chose you," Leon replied.

"Um, seriously? Just like that? But, _why me?_"

"Heck should I know?"

For a moment, Cody was pretty much just staring into nothing, attempting to completely grasp what had occurred in such a short time. Just a few hours ago, he was simply spending one final day at Camp Wawanakwa, but now he pretty much got sucked into, in Yuffie's words, a "role playing video game". It just felt so unreal to him... Well, every moment of silence does, however, come to an end.

**_THUD!_**

"What was that?" Yuffie jolted.

Seeing as how no one else was moving, Leon cautiously approached the door with his sword in hand. As Leon turned the knob of the door, Cody really could have sworn that he heard screams of panic accompanied with a strengthened source sound of chaos. After opening the door, Leon made a quick swing of his sword.

**_SHING!_**

"We've got a whole hoard of Heartless out in the hallway!" Leon shouted to the two as he swung his sword back in, it's blade covered with a disappearing essence of darkness. "C'mon!"

"Finally," Yuffie said... Wait, does she sound happy? "Haven't had much fun since all those Heartless were scattered around the Shopping District!" Grabbing out a kunai knife and about four ninja stars seemingly out of nowhere, the ninja girl ran out of the room followed by sounds of attacking and laughter of an excited genki girl. Shaking his head, Leon followed suite, leaving the poor, inexperienced tech geek to fend himself off in the confined space.

"Uh, um," he stammered nervously as a bunch of Heartless began piling in.

_Come on guys. Come back remembering that I have barely even any experience to fend for myself..._

Nothing.

_Those bastards._

"Alright," he said nervously as he got ready to attack. "Let's see if I can fend for myself..." Well, if one were to actually see Cody's fighting skills, it'd be quite obvious that he wasn't really cut out for the whole fighting thing, but he _was_ able to take out the Heartless in the hotel room...right before running off again.

I smell reoccurring pun somewhere.

_Oh man, I am _so_ not ready for this_, he thought as he ran through the halls of the hotel, attempting to avoid resorting to violence as much as possible. _There's gotta be an exit somewhere... Oh, wait, there it is!_

As Cody ran through the lobby with another hoard of Heartless after him, the lady at the front desk groaned as she stood on top of the desk while Heartless began to swarm around her as well. "I don't get paid enough for this..." Although Cody wasn't there to see it, her heart began to float above her body for a bit before her body just disappeared as a whole while a new Heartless took place at the same spot.

* * *

**_SWISH!_**

"Come on! Isn't there an end to you guys?!"

**_SLASH!_**

"Come on, I'm not built on fighting!"

**_SHING!_**

"This is endless..."

After escaping the Heartless consumed hotel, Cody ventured a bit outside at what appeared to be the main plaza. Hoping that the Heartless swarm would leave, he continuously began to lunge at the creatures using his poor fighting skills, but there just wasn't any apparent end. Strangely enough, the newly spawning Heartless were being formed seemingly at the water fountain not too far off...

**_SLASH!_**

"... I-is that all of them?" As quickly as the hoard replenished, it also diminished until nothing was left in the area but an exhausted Cody. All was silent for a moment, but it was broken off eventually, startling the teen.

"Is there no end to these guys?!"

"I don't know, they just keep on appearing and appearing and-"

"Loudred you idiot, you're walking towards the e-ed-AAAAHHHH!!"

**_BAM!_**

Groans galore. After a similar encounter by the Pokémon duo just a platform above the tech geek, Alakazam and Loudred were collided upon a very aggravated Cody. Luckily for them, he was way too exhausted to be angry.

"... Th-the key!" Alakazam gasped as he reopened his eyes in time to notice Cody's hand still clutching tightly to the Keyblade.

"W-we found it!" Loudred cried out in response.

"Um, can you two please get off of me," Cody groaned weakly. Before his request was answered however, Heather walked right in front of them.

"So you decided to pop up again, huh," she scoffed. "And who're your two freak friends? What _are_ they?"

"Hey there Heather," Cody groaned. As if being crushed by two things obviously higher up in weight than him wasn't enough. They did get off eventually, but it still wasn't exactly enjoyable to listen to a random bash from Heather.

"Ran away like a chicken back there. Figures. You're never going to amount to anything." As the queen bee continued to bash on poor Cody, his eyes slowly began to widen. He wasn't being intimidated by Heather, but something even more frightening was appearing.

"U-u-uh, H-h-heather," he squeaked.

"What?" She groaned, probably aggravated that her rude rant came to a halt.

"B-behind you."

Rolling her eyes, she turned around. Cody could tell that her eyes widened in epic fear. Not wanting to see what possibly would occur next, he shut his eyes up tight. In that short period, all he could hear was a shrill scream of terror. Slowly opening up his eyelids, he saw that Heather was gone and nowhere to be seen, but the large, seemingly covered in purple armored creature he noticed earlier was still there.

"H-holy crap," he gaped. "W-what is that?"

"Don't just stand there," Alakazam shouted off. "Attack it!"

"But who _are_ you two?"

"You really think it's a good time to ask?" Alakazam rolled his eyes in frustration.

"Why haven't I said anything in a while?" Loudred randomly added in.

"You shut up too!" Alakazam shouted in response as he shot fire out of his staff, hitting the Heartless on its head. As Cody's mouth went wide open from the sight of an actual magical staff, the Heartless creature quickly became engulfed in flames. "There, now wasn't that easy?"

It then began to _actually_ attack, lunging its flaming arms at them, much to the trio's chagrin.

"Er, whoops?" Alakazam said nervously as Cody glared over disapprovingly. "I guess magic doesn't work then?... So, uh, I'll just sit out of this one then. You take over Keybearer," he sighed as he ran away from range.

"Me?!" Cody shouted in response. "How am I supposed to beat this thing?"

"I don't know, aim for the head or something."

"Don't you mean the horn?"

"THE **HEAD!!**"

"Can I get some dialogue now?"

"SHUT UP LOUDRED!!"

"Aiming for the head" was about as good of advice as smashing yourself to a wall, so there were plenty of self stammers and doubt before any actual action. There wasn't even _much_ to do at this situation, so Cody pretty much did the first thing that came to his mind.

He threw the Keyblade at the Heartless's head.

And it missed.

Yeah.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Alakazam exclaimed in fury.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?"

"Jump up at it and actually hit its head!"

"I'm not sure what world you guys came from, but in mine, we actually follow the laws of gravity!"

"Uh, what's gravity?" Loudred asked curiously.

Suddenly, the doors to another district flung open as an over-sized ninja star flew over to the flaming Heartless's head. Guess who just came!

"Leon! Yuffie!" Cody shouted off excitedly, gaining some confused glances from the Pokémon duo.

"You guys need help?" Yuffie giggled.

"Er, how can you tell?"

"We heard you guys yelling from the second district," Leon answered, unimpressed. This led to the three to gain some pretty flushed faces. "Not a very good team, are we now?" More flushed faces. "Don't worry, we'll handle things," he sighed as he shook his head. "How did these guys manage to make the Heartless catch on fire?" He grumbled.

Alakazam whistled.

"Come on Leon," Yuffie shouted off as she ran to grab her large shuriken star while throwing knives at the Heartless's head in the process, dealing some damage. "I need some Gunblade power here... Ow! Aw man, that thing burned up my weapons..."

_Gunblade?_ Cody thought to himself with a quizzical look. Leon obviously got the message.

"Just watch." He pulled out his sword, carefully aimed the tip of the blade at the head of the Heartless, too preoccupied with Yuffie at the moment, and... Wait, is that sword _shooting_? Well, the others were certainly impressed.

In a matter of moments, the Heartless was slain. While Yuffie frantically began attempting to cool off her weapons with nothing but her breath, Cody, Alakazam, and Loudred looked at each other a little embarrassed. Their combat and teamwork definitely needed some serious fine tuning.

"So," Cody began in order to break the akwardness. "You guys were looking for me?"

The two nodded in response.

"Yes," another voice chimed in. "They too have been searching for the Keybearer, in order to find their king that is." With that, Aerith walked into the scene with a strange, white creature resting in her arms.

"Aerith!" The duo shouted in glee at the woman's presence. "Sorry we just kind of left you back there," Loudred said, finally getting dialogue.

"Oh, no problem," she responded with a smile. "I may not look it, but I can fend for myself too."

Stares.

"Y'know, you might want to go with them," Leon continued. "I've heard you've been looking for two of your friends. Might help out."

_Gwen and Trent? M-maybe I can find them, but..._

"Hey, don't worry," Alakazam said reassuringly, noticing Cody's feelings of uncertainty. "We'll find them."

"We can?" Loudred whispered over.

"Look, we need this kid to find the king, so I don't think lying is much of a problem here," Alakazam hissed back.

"But that's kind of mean."

"So?"

"I've decided," Cody happily chimed with confidence. "I'll come with you guys."

"Well," Aerith added in. "If the three of you are going to be traveling world to world, I've got something you might need."

The white creature that was nestling on her arms began to yawn as it ruffled up it's long ears to reveal its face. It jumped off of Aerith and landed on the ground happily, staring up to the three... If you would call it staring that is. The three felt a bit uncomfortable being looked at with shut eyes. It moved a bit, the red crystal on its gleaming right at their faces in the process, as it began to stretch itself a bit.

"... Er, what is this...thing?" Alakazam asked quizzically.

"Hey!" The creature shouted in response in a rather high pitched voice, startling the gang. "I'm not a thing! I'm Mokona!"

"Pretty weird looking rabbit," Loudred chuckled.

"He's not a rabbit," Aerith giggled slightly in response. "He's Mokona."

"Mokona is Mokona," Aerith and Mokona replied simultaneously, gaining weird looks from the trio and a shake of the head from Leon. Yuffie, however, was still trying to cool off her weapons.

"He's the reason that those two over there have been able to communicate so freely with everyone," Aerith explained. "Not every world has the same language. We're not exactly sure how, but Mokona has the ability to let all beings around it understand each other despite their language. He's been really helpful to us, but I'm pretty sure that you guys will need him more."

"Thanks," Cody replied as Mokona jumped on to his ahoulder. "We appreciate it."

"Well," Yuffie said, breathing in heavily, still in her attempts to unsuccessfully cool down her weapons. "I guess (breath) you guys should (breath) be on your way then. (breath) Oh man, why'd you guys have to set that thing on fire?"

"Just throw them in the fountain," Leon sighed.

After a few laughs at Yuffie's troubles, the four said their farewells and left for their journey, but by now, Cody was beginning to gain some doubts about his predicament. _What if I can't find them? Maybe I'm just not the right person for this..._

"Still upset?" Alakazam asked, once again noticing Cody's sullen mood.

"Huh? Oh, uh, well, yeah, I guess..."

"Oh c'mon, cheer up."

"Fine, but if you say something as stupid as 'our ship runs on smiles'..."

"... Maybe..."

"Hey," Loudred began. "I don't think we really introduced ourselves yet."

"Oh, right," the psychic Pokémon replied. "Alakazam."

"I'm Loudred."

"I'm Mokona!"

"We all know who you are," the tech geek laughed.

"... Uh, I think it's your turn," Mokona said.

"Huh? Oh, right," he stuttered. "My name's Cody."

* * *

"So, are you willing to join us?" Maleficent grinned as she slyly stared to another possible ally. "It's more or less an internship until you really prove your skills, but I do assure that you'll gain rule of something in return."

"Tempting," a certain queen bee replied in a tone just as devious. "But should I really trust you?..."

"Rest assured, you've got nothing to worry about," Maleficent answered, lightly grinning wickedly.

"... Fine, I'll join, but in one condition... Do you mind giving me some hair?"

"... Um, yes, that can be arranged."

* * *

**Oh gosh, it's finally done! After nearly a whole year! Whelps, now that the items I find tedious are done, it's time for the real fun, so look forward to much more frequent updates in the future.**

**... If I still have a readership that is.**

**Oh, and I'd also like to thank those who may have stuck around and those from before. I hear that one reader even got inspired to create his own TDI rendition of Kingdom Hearts. : D**

**Please review!**


	6. Peculiar Accusations

**Evidently, I was right. My unannounced hiatus did in fact kill off my fic's fanbase! :D**

**Jokes aside, I'm going to be starting foot notes this chapter since I've realized that some of my pop culture references are just a tad bit too obscure for some people to actually find funny like:  
**_**EX**_**: **""I don't know, aim for the head or something."  
"Don't you mean the horn?"  
"THE **HEAD!!  
****This is kind of referencing an internet meme based off of an episode of Pokémon that was infamous for the illogical battle between Pikachu and Rhydon, ending with Rhydon fainting after Pikachu electrocutes its horn.**

**See how obscure that can be?**

… **Alright, I'mma just gonna shut up and start up the chapter now…**

**

* * *

**

It was all so strange to him.

By now, he had came to the understanding of his current situation but…

The fact that you could simply travel to different worlds through well constructed ships was really puzzling.

It was _that _easy to go to another world? Seriously? _That_ easy?!

… Er, right, back on topic.

"I'm bored!" Loudred and Mokona whined simultaneously.

"Shut up," Alakazam groaned in response as he attempted to operate the titular Gummi Ship. "I'm trying to keep you people alive here!"

"Look, if you've never piloted before, I can take over," Cody offered. "I've played a couple of flight simulators before."

"No."

"What?" He responded in disbelief. "But I said that I've played flight simulators before!"

"Exactly. Now shut up and go back to combat practice."

"But all I've really accomplished is learning how to summon and put the Keyblade in hammer space. Can't I-"

"No."

"Well, I've kind of got experien-"

"No."

"… Fine. I see how it is… Hey Loudred, Mokona, sing the Carramelldansen!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

They're getting along wonderfully.

… Random moments aside, let's actually get something done today.

"Are we there yet?" Mokona whined for about the eleventh time that half hour. "I'm bored!"

"You always are," Cody sighed, the insanity of the crew finally catching up to him. "Seriously though, can't we speed this thing up? It feels like hours since we actually left Traverse Town."

"Quit your complaining or I'm landing us in that waterfall over there," Alakazam responded. You really gotta feel sorry for the guy.

"We actually reached somewhere?"

"Yeah," the psychic Pokémon replied as he went to go check a near by computer screen, filled to the brim with information. Annoyance ensued as he continuously attempted to skim through the article. "We're going to have to use the cloaking device for you and Mokona."

"Cloaking device?"

"Yeah," Loudred began to explain. "It's part of this whole keeping all the worlds in balance rule. We can't go running around not blending in."

"What he said," Alakazam continued as he continued to toy with the contents of the computer. "Not everyplace is going to be like Traverse Town. If necessary, we're going to have to try to blend in as much as possible… Oh, this seems fitting," he began grinning. "Alright, better get moving!"

* * *

_**THUD!**_

"Get the hell off of me!"

"I'm piloting next time, got it?!"

"Mm, why am I at the bottom?"

"Why is Loudred at the top?!"

"Sorry guys!"

Ah, memories. It felt just like how Cody was first confronted with Alakazam and Loudred, but really, the position was just so uncomfortable to him…especially now. Oddly enough, Cody felt as if the weight was pulling on him much more than before. Could the extra weight have been from Mokona? Nah, Mokona was as small as a stuffed toy. How much weight could _he_ have brought?

_Ah, it's probably nothing_, he thought as he scrambled out of the pile, his companions still complaining…but his current body sensation definitely didn't feel normal. As he brushed some dirt off of his face, it became apparent to him that the cloaking device definitely must have turned him into a furry, but the feel of choosing to go on four legs rather than two was a bit…unsettling.

_Man, we better get out of here, quick_, he grumbled mentally. _Just what I need, a form that would give people unfortunate implications on the internet. _**(1)**

_Drip...drip…drip…_

The liquid constantly thumping down was really driving his curiosity mad at the moment. If there's dripping water, there's got to be a puddle near by, right? Just a quick peek at what Alakazam had apparently found fitting for him would be enough to ease his anxiety…

… But really, maybe he should have kept his curiosity intact.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Cody shouted, his voice echoing off in the blue cave-like area, instantly grabbing the attention of his companions, their seemingly endless argument and complaints ending.

In a near immediate reaction, Alakazam smiled wickedly while Loudred attempted to hold back his laughter, but because it's Loudred, that wasn't much of a possibility.

"Wow, Cody looks just like a baby fox!" Mokona beamed. His new form was kind of in the shape of a half-hatched egg, the whole body still covered with a colorfully colored shell. The top, however, looked just like a crown in structure. The only real implication that it was still Mokona was the red dot on his forehead. His semi-ridiculous look from now and then would make one wonder if he should really be talking.

"_This_ is what you thought would be fitting for me?!"

"Well," Alakazam snorted. "With your battle skills, I assume everyone would find you to be a rather nice Eevee."

Cody stared blankly, waving his bushy tail slightly. He was never one to let out much anger, but the thoughts of what his peers thought of him following the terrible attempt of a group battle from earlier was quite demeaning.

"So what the heck is Mokona supposed to be?" Cody started up again, changing the subject.

"A Togepi."

"Aren't I adorable?!"

The group began on the move soon afterwards with idle chit chat here and there. They weren't necessarily sure how to escape the dungeon that they had landed in, but somehow that didn't bother them too much…

And then there was the Monster House **(2)**.

It seemed really random actually. I mean, if you were just randomly walking around, would you expect to be suddenly ambushed by about thirty-five Pokémon? They attempted to fend them off at first, but…well, they gave up.

"Where the hell is the exit?!" Alakazam whined as the gang began frantically running away from the band of monsters.

"What's with these guys?" Cody pondered frantically. "What did we _do_?"

Thankfully, most of the band of mindless monsters lost interest with apprehending the four, but by this time, it's safe to say that they just wanted to leave.

"I'm tired!" Loudred and Mokona childishly whined.

"Shut up," the other two answered.

Saying that the experience was a nightmare would have been an understatement. However, words simply cannot convey the expressions on their faces during this exchange of a near by party.

"P-please, you two have to believe me!" a petite yellow mouse squeaked nervously.

"I'm…really sorry. It's not like we think that you did anything, but…"

"It's just our job," A slightly larger green lizard sighed, completing his orange monkey-like friend's unwilling words. "Don't worry. This whole predicament is just ridiculous by description. We'll sort things out Pichu."

"Come on," the other sighed. "We have to take you back first."

Tears in Pichu's eyes, the two slightly larger Pokémon grabbed out a small badge, causing a bright glow to bestow on the three while their images slowly vanished.

"Wait, stop!" Loudred and Alakazam shouted as they quickly ran towards the trio.

"Take us with you!" Cody joined in.

Unfortunately, their pleas were not heard, literally. The sounds of their voices never even reached the other party's ears.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… So, does this mean we're camping out for the night?"

* * *

**TREASURE TOWN**

* * *

"F-food…"

"Mm, screw the food. I just wanna sit down…"

After a treacherous trek in the strange cave in which they began their journey, the gang was unfortunately ambushed by swarms after swarms of strange monsters. In actuality, the sad part is that all of those countless encounters have managed to wear them off before any confirmation of Heartless residing in this world were even exchanged.

"Mm, I don't like this place. Can we just leave and try a different world?" Mokona suggested, sitting right on top of Loudred.

"Absolutely not," Alakazam grunted. "We have to get used to all these random battles. This place isn't really Heartless infested at all, but there could possibly be several worlds out there that have just as many Heartless in them as there are annoying Pokémon."

"… So…is this your world?" Cody asked curiously.

"… What?"

"Well, you guys seem to know these species and all."

"Nah," Loudred yawned. "Pro'ly just a world that just so happens to have the same kind of inhabitants in it. **(3) **"

"Um, okay then," Cody sighed before collapsing on the ground. "I can't run anymore…"

"Oh come on," Alakazam complained. "We just got out of that hellhole. Just deal with it so we can at least find a place to stay."

As the complaining began again, both the narrator and writer begins to wonder if these guys will ever get along. By now, the group was idly exploring a local marketplace, attracting curious faces from the residents and passerbys. Yeah, the whole "blending in" thing certainly wasn't working out…

"Hey," a new voice chimed in. "If you guys are looking for a place to stay, we can probably help."

Finally snapping out of the pointless argument, the gang was greeted with two new faces. Both were blue, circular creatures endowed with large, circular tails and looked as if they were aquatic mice, one being larger than the other.

"Oh, so you heard us?"

"Actually," the larger blue mouse laughed sheepishly. "You guys kind of attracted the whole marketplace."

"Er, we did?" Cody replied nervously.

"Yup, totally!" The smaller blue mouse laughed as he began to bounce on his tail, one being larger that his body itself. "Hey, are you guys an exploration team?"

"A what?" Loudred blinked.

"Well, you guys look really worn out, so I thought you guys were beating up some bad Pokémon at a dungeon."

"Oh yeah, that was so much fun!" Mokona laughed, gaining glares from the others, but he either didn't mind or didn't notice at all.

"Perfect," the larger aquatic mouse laughed. "Then you guys can probably stay at Wigglytuff's Guild. It's just up ahead if you guys are interested."

"Thanks," Alakazam grumbled as he stormed off, the others follwing suit.

"Uh, don't mind him," Cody added on before leaving. "He's just in a bad mood. Thanks for the help!"

"Don't mention it," the blue rodent replied warmly as Cody began to leave. "By the way, if you happen to see a Treeko and a Chimchar, tell them that Marill and Azurill said 'thanks for the day'."

* * *

"Er," Cody blinked. "_This_ is the place?" Looking up at the pink character building, it was really hard not to laugh. Honestly, the name :Wigglytuff" was far from threatening when he had heard it, but he didn't expect the building to match its description.

"Just shut up and get in," Alakazam moaned wearily as he numbly shoved Cody aside and moved toward the slightly covered cesspit to enter.

"Alakazam!" A voice squeaked from below.

"Hm?" Cody thought in curiosity as his two other companions walked through.

"Loudred! Togepi!"

Shrugging it off, he quickly dashed through towards the entrance.

"Eevee… Wow, don't get much of those," the voice squeaked again.

* * *

"I am telling you two, that little demon committed a felon!" A large cat-like creature covered with both cyan and white fur shouted off. "If you do not allow him to be arrested, I will-"

"Look, Purugly, stop repeating the same things over and over again! Do you even have proof?" Treeko retorted.

"You dare cut me off like that?! Do you know who I am?!"

"Yes. You're the Duchess of the town north of Treasure Town, one of Poké Magazine's one hundred fattest and least attractive creatures, and an overall pain in the ass," Chimchar whispered softly in a bored fashion, gaining some giggles from the previously crying Pichu.

The argument had been going on for what felt like hours, successfully attracting up all the guild members to listen in. Just then, the gang reached the room, all the Pokémon to busy watching the show than to greet or look by at them curiously.

"What's going on?" Cody asked as the group began passing through.

"Don't know, don't care," Alakazam groaned. "We're not supposed to be interfering with the affairs of other worlds anyway. Just keep moving on."

_But…aren't those three the same guys we saw back at that dungeon? _

"Alright, settle down," a pink creature resembling that of the character on the roof nervously laughed in attempts to break up the frenzy. "I'm sure we can quickly settle this out, but Purugly, what is it exactly that you're accusing Pichu for?"

"That _thing_," Purugly sneered over at Pichu who whimpered behind Chimchar in response.

"Her name is Pichu," Chimchar growled at the inhumane reference.

"Pichu, whatever," she rolled her eyes. "She should be getting arrested for attempted theft of my heart."

_What?!_

"…Excuse me?"

"What does that even mean?" Treecko rolled his eyes in disgust.

Of course, no one but Cody and his group probably knew what Purugly had meant, but the very phrase sparked out on to Cody's mind and he couldn't just let that poor little mouse get prosecuted for such a trivial felony. He shouted off without thinking.

"It wasn't Pichu. It was the Heartless!"

All the eyes that were once staring over at the raged argument suddenly shifted over to a lone little Eevee on the other side of the room. More than halfway across the room, Loudred and Mokona looked over as well while Alakzam groaned as he performed a face palm.

"… Could you repeat that?" The pink creature, probably Wigglytuff, replied, breaking the silence.

…_Probably should have thought this through_, Cody thought nervously. "Um," he weakly began. "You see, there are these creatures that go off and…steal people's hearts?"

Stares.

It was worse than the days on Playa de Losers following Duncan's elimination.

"L-look, I'm telling the truth. I've actually seen these things before."

"The truth doesn't matter at all as long as there's proof," a parrot-like bird, a head resembling a music note, retorted. "If we're going to prove that Pichu here was framed from these Heartless creatures you speak of, then you're going to have to go and find proof for yourself."

"What?!" Purugly scoffed in disbelief. "You're honestly falling for this crap?! You don't trust what _I _have to say?"

"You're accusing a _Pichu _of all Pokémon," Treeko rolled his eyes.

"Very well," the snooty duchess purred irritably. "You'll get a day to gather evidence. Come back with nothing," her face turned more grim than it already was. "And I'll have it that you get arrested as well for aiding a criminal."

With a huff, Purugly slowly left the building with her eyes glaring to the air, the rest of the crowd slowly disbanding as well shortly afterwards. As soon as the crowd left, leaving no one but the three who were in the middle of the argument, Pichu slowly trotted off to Cody with a nervous smile on her face.

"Uh-um, thank you for helping me out um…"

"Cody."

"Cody? That's a weird name for an Eevee. Sorry for burdening you…"

"It's no problem at all. We'll get this sorted out in no time."

The electric mouse smiled hopefully before running back to Treeko and Chimchar, the trio leaving soon after.

"Nice job there," Alakazam spoke from behind, startling the teen turned Eevee. "Way to follow the don't interfere with other world's affairs rule."

"What?" He replied. "I couldn't just let her get arrested! Have a heart!"

"Whatever," the psychic type grumbled as he walked away.

* * *

"Hey, Mokona, Loudred, you guys are still with me, right?"

"Sure why not," Loudred yawned.

"I'm tired!" Mokona followed suit.

"I'll take that as a yes."

**

* * *

**

**(1) UNFORTUNATE IMPLICATIONS- **You've all heard of the Internet's infamous furry fandom, right? Unfortunately, they're pretty much the butt monkeys of the Internet, so many don't try to get too associated with them (Giving no offense to those who may be reading if you truly are deep into the furry fandom).

**(2) MONSTER HOUSE- **If you've ever played the Mystery Dungeon games, you've probably run into a Monster House at least once or twice. Basically, you enter a small dungeon room that has a pretty good amount of items in it, then BAM! Suddenly you're being marauded by about five to ten minutes worth of Pokémon to kill.

**(3) ALTERNATE POKÉMON WORLDS- **I guess it's only natural for Pokémon to have like thirteen manga series, an anime, and three spin-off series. Obviously, they all don't happen at the same world, so consider this an explanation!

**

* * *

**

**Ah, I hope I didn't bore anyone. I wasn't necessarily that enthusiastic to write Treasure Town, so it probably reflected on the quality.**

**Oh well. Please drop some criticism ('-')**


	7. The Courage to Continue

**Woo! Here we go again!…**

**There's nothing to say here -_-;**

**Move along with your lives…**

* * *

It was the break of dawn when Cody walked out of the building, staring wearily up at the sky with tired eyes. To think, even though he had been eliminated so soon in the competition all those weeks ago, the countless rude morning awakenings from Chris should've at least shook his late rising habit's a tinge.

"Oh god, my back aches," he groaned as he stretched off for a bit. He probably assumed that his new four-legged body would've automatically been adapt to the hay bedding. Thought wrong.

"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Cody shouted down to his companions lagging behind.

"I'm tired!" Mokona and Loudred whined once again.

"Always the same with you guys," Cody sighed, shaking his head slowly. "And Alakazam's not coming?"

"Ali-chan told us that if we woke him up early, he'd send us to a fate worse than death," Mokona replied.

"Got it," Cody snickered. _Ali-chan? Wait 'til he hears this._

The trio began to leave the premises, tired and clueless alike. It was bound to be a long day…

"Hey, you three wait up!"

"Hm?"

Turning around, the trio was greeted with the image of the Chimchar from yesterday rushing over excitedly with Treeko slowly and nonchalantly following from behind.

"You're the guys from yesterday," Cody said in realization.

"Yeah, name's Chimchar," he grinned. "And the gloomy killjoy at the back's Treeko."

Treeko rolled his eyes, arms crossed.

" So, what're you guys doing out so early?"

"Well, we want to help Pichu out too," Chimchar grinned sheepishly. "Right Treeko?"

"Don't be fooled by these eyes. I really want to help out as well," the green lizard mumbled.

"R-really, you two don't need to go to this trouble," Cody stammered modestly.

"Five hundred Poké," Treeko responded nonchalantly. "You have no clue where Purugly and Pichu were and even then, you wouldn't know where to find the place."

"…"

"You need us," Treeko lightly smiled.

"Sure, why not," Loudred yawned, causing Chimchar to cover his up his nose and Treeko's eyes to widen. "The more the merrier!"

"What's that stench?" Treeko gagged.

"Uh yeah," Cody laughed nervously. "That was Loudred… Get used to it…"

* * *

A rough hour and a half had passed by with the group's somewhat idle venture. Loudred and Mokona decided to go pass the time talking to Chimchar, the poor little monkey attempting to hide back the many gags he wanted to give off from the smell of the loudmouth's breath. Cody and Treeko lagged behind idly.

"Man," Cody laughed. "You and Chimchar are like polar opposites. How did the two of you end up starting an exploration team?"

"Well, he was the first person I remember seeing since about a week ago…"

"Hm?"

"I don't know. I'm suffering a bit from amnesia, okay?" Treeko quickly shook it off, desperate to change the topic. "Right, so we're about five more minutes to the Lingering Caves.

"Everyone from the guild that comes back from there keeps on reporting these strange black creatures that were mixed in with all the rogue Pokémon. Just last week even, one of our groups came back all injured talking about this gigantic monster at the final floor of the dungeon. We're not really sure what to make of this place."

"Definitely Heartless," Cody mumbled.

"How do you know about these guys?"

"None of your concern." As tempting as it was to tell the truth of the new life of adventure he was living, the tech geek thought that he should probably follow the second rule Alakazam gave after abiding the first one:

"_Reveal to anyone that there are other worlds out there and I will kill you…slowly."_

Something told him that he was serious.

"By the way," Treeko began again. "Wasn't there another one with you guys? That Alakazam?"

"Oh, right, him. Didn't want to come, so we decided to leave without him and just left him sleeping."

"Okay, that's cool."

"I'm sure he won't mind at all."

* * *

Alakazam twitched maniacally at the news divulged right in front of him. Why did it always seem that he gets the most tedious news through letters?

_Ali-chan,  
Mokona, don't call him that!  
Ali,  
Much better…_

_We understand that you weren't for helping the people of other worlds to begin with, but we feel that Cody did the right thing. You're not supporting us, so we'll just leave you , you tried to kill us as soon as we tried to wake you up ;-;_

_Love, Mokona and Loudred…And Cody too._

"Those bastards," he growled. "THEY JUST LEFT ME BEHIND?"

The psychic type rushed out of the building in record speed following the letter, leaving several of the Pokémon he dashed past confused as to why he had such a murderous and threatening face plastered on.

* * *

"So this is the place," Cody gulped as he stared up to the intimidating cave.

"Yeah, I know," Treeko shrugged as he entered in. "Really big. Shouldn't take us too long to find some legit evidence though.

The five slowly entered in, each expressing worried faces. How were they even going to find evidence anyway? It's not like they could bring a Heartless back. Would all this just be a waste of time?…

Just then, a huge flock of Heartless came dashing in. The group composed of the usual Shadows and soldiers, but now had another type mixed in: creatures appearing to be wearing varied colors of dresses and yellow pointed hats all while still retaining the black yellow-eyed faces their predecessors did. Mixed in with the flock as well were some low leveled rogue Pokémon.

"What the hell are those things?" Chimchar gaped while Cody and Loudred got ready for battle.

"Just the things that Purugly mistook Pichu for for some reason," Cody answered a bit nervously. As much as he wanted to say that he defeated quite a lot of these guys, his "real world" abilities had handicapped him for all the previous battles and the big battle with Guard Armor had ended with the embarrassing assistance of Leon and Yuffie.

"Man, is that pain in the ass blind too?" Treeko grumbled as he prepared himself as he began to pound off a couple of Shadows. "How do you mistake these things for a Pichu?"

"I…don't…know," Cody replied between slashes. Now that he had to walk on all fours, he was pretty much forced to hold the Keyblade with his mouth. "But…how…are…we going to find…evidence?"

"How should I know? You were the one who wanted to come here!"

"Shut up!"

As the enemy crowd died down, the five dived past to the next floor of the dungeon, the two Pokémon accompaniments overwhelmed by the strange new creatures they had just fought against.

"Man," Chimchar breathed hard. "This is gonna be a bit harder than I thought. I mean, never mind the fact that the two of us aren't that high in level as it is."

"Maybe you should've mentioned that before?" Loudred suggested.

"Whatever," Treeko groaned with his signature eye roll as he began inspecting the room the group had just entered. His sight shifted at the place constantly until his face finally gleamed at a small scrap of paper on the floor. He grabbed it with a smirk, a slight bit of satisfaction on his face.

"Hey, what's up?" Cody trudged over curiously.

"Check it out," Treeko replied as he shoved the scrap of paper right in his face.

At first, Cody did nothing but stared in confusion at the scrap, but as he examined it more, he too gained a smile. "Wow, we actually got proof? Didn't think it'd be that easy." Indeed. The scrap of paper that the green reptile had discovered was actually a photograph. Although the picture was pretty blurred, one could still make out the silhouette of a Shadow lunging towards the infamous Purugly.

"Must've been from the newspaper guys that tried to tackle this place down two days ago," Treeko answered as he stuffed the first bit of evidence in his pouch. "But we're gonna need more than just this. Come on, there's got to be some more stuff around here somewhere."

Nodding, Cody followed Treeko through the dungeon labyrinth, followed by the rest of the gang.

* * *

"I don't get it," Heather said. "If you don't want those guys to interfere, why are you letting that thing go and drop clues around the place for them?"

"Simple," Maleficent grinned wickedly in response to her new apprentice. "They won't simply be stopped by all these weak leveled Heartless by the looks of things. If we lead them on thinking that everything just happens to be going their way, a trap would be right at the back of their minds."

"Oh," Heather grumbled, a bit embarrassed that the manipulative witch of Total Drama Island hadn't picked it up beforehand. "Makes sense…but that _thing_ you're sending out…"

Maleficent cackled evilly at Heather's uncertainty. "Have I ever told you the tale of the demon Pokémon, MissingNo?"

* * *

They really should've thought that something up was going on by now, but their half-minded selves didn't suspect a thing at all. The clues that they picked up? More photos that included footprints, several Heartless, and even Pichu herself being attacked. Did anyone wonder as to why these photos were so conveniently placed all about?

"Think we've got enough?" Cody asked as he flipped through the small collection of evidence they were able to gather.

"Oh come on," Loudred answered. "We've got more than enough. They'll have to believe us!"

"Don't even know how that crazy witch mistook Pichu for these things," Chimchar sighed, brushing sweat off of his head.

As the idle conversation continued, another presence in the dungeon room stared. It was just this one floor before the foolish group would meet their possible ends. Maleficent had saw how "terrific" Cody was back at Traverse Town. Sure he can handle Heartless his size or smaller, but with his world's laws of gravity working against him, this may as well be the end of the line for him.

The mysterious figure chuckled loudly, startling the gang. The five turned around towards the corner and saw the chilling creature, a black ball of gas with a menacing white grin.

"Er, what is that thing," Cody asked quizzically at the creature.

"Well," Chimchar began. "It looks a bit like a Ghastly but…"

-BZZT-

"Hm?"

-BZZT-

Oddly, the creature began fidgeting as if it were a pixilated creature under bad reception. While the eyes of the gang just stared on with fear, the creature's whole body slowly began to change into nothing more than a pixilated mass floating in the air. Realization grew on the Loudred and Chimchar who's scared faces grew even more terrified.

"I-it's," Chimchar fidgeted.

"It's MissingNo!" Loudred cried out as he began to make a run for it.

"Missing what?" Treecko.

"Dude," Chimchar began again, now grabbing ahold of his partner in attempts to shake some sense into him. "It's the demon Pokémon MissingNo! That thing can bend all of reality and even erase our existence! We have to get the hell out of here!" The monkey dashed right out just a second later.

Although the rest were not informed of the demonic creature like the other two were, the three began to follow suit, but right as Treecko began to dash off, a swift breeze blew by to him, startling the reptile. As he quickly looked back at the creature, his eyes widened in the sight of the photographs that they had all taken much care into gathering now in the hands of MissingNo's first form.

As he quickly screeched to a halt and dashed back, the others glanced back with eyes widened at his feat.

"Are you crazy?" Chimchar cried as he began to run back to his companion right as MissingNo descended down the dungeon stairs.

"That thing just took all the evidence we gathered. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to let an innocent get sent to prison because of a promise we couldn't keep." He looked back at each of his companion as he reached the stairs, waiting to see if any one of them would follow.

_Is he crazy?_ Cody pondered. _Didn't Chimchar just say that that thing can wipe out our existence?… And why's _he_ stealing the show? I thought I was the main character!_

As none of the frightened bunch dared to take a step forward, Treecko shook his head in disgust and turned his back to them.

"God, I'm the only one here who has morals?" He muttered. "Chimchar, aren't you the one who said you were too afraid to make an exploration team because you didn't think you were brave enough?"

Chimchar gulped a bit in guilt.

"Never thought you'd actually show that you were right…And you," he continued as he turned his head with his glare shifted towards Cody. Cody's eyes widened a bit in response.

"You were the one who bothered to challenge that crazy nutcase yesterday and you of all people are staying back. Guess you're just talk then."

Shaking his head and performing inaudible murmurs, Treecko proceeded to descend down into the staircase. As sight of his body could no longer be seen, the group remained silent.

"… Well, I'm out of here," Loudred said as he began to walk out of the room.

"Loudred!" Mokona shouted in response. "We can't just leave him down there!"

"Hey, _you_ don't know what MissingNo can do. Me and Chimchar on the other hand know boatloads of horror stories of that thing to know it's suicide to try to fight back. Right, Chimchar?"

"…"

"…Well?"

"…" After giving no response to his newfound friend, the monkey glanced over at Cody with a knowing smile. Nodding with understandment, the two began to walk over to the staircase.

As Mokona began to follow, Loudred stood there stunned. "Really? You guys want to get killed?"

No response.

"Well, yeah? Have fun being blown out of existence. I'm just going to leave and tell Alakazam that you all died and, and that we don't need Cody to find the king and…"

…

"Hey, guys, wait up!"

* * *

Over at the end corner of the last dungeon room, MissingNo snickered madly through cacklings matter, its living pixels fidgetting each time. It stared straight down to the pictures that it had scattered about and laughed some more maniacally. It was no question that even MissingNo was mocking their carelessness and naivety.

Several footsteps rushed into the room and with vital response, MissingNo turned around to greet the faces of the pumped up heroes. As it cackled again, this time to ear injuring depths, a strong gust of wind began to form around the creature as its pixels once again began to recalibrate. First, it shifted to the familiar digital form that the gang had witnessed earlier, but it then quickly morphed on, creating more wind to gather.

As the gust finally began to die down, the pixels began to create a creature of no resemblance to MissingNo. It's size grew to great lengths as it rearranged to take the form of a stick figure-like juggler, its head stacked with repeating layers of black and red faces. With fear now in each of their eyes, the Trickmaster was more then ready for combat.

Although still with the familiar cacklings of MissingNo, the new creature was quick to swing its clubs right at the heroes, barely missing impact.

"That thing can turn into a Heartless!" Cody squealed as he made several failed attempts of intimidation via several swings of the Keyblade.

"So_ this_ is the same thing as those black creatures?" Treecko responded as he quickly began to throw the sticks, twigs, and gravel rocks they had gathered during their trek at the creature. "Why is it so damned big?"

"It's just like the one you guys failed to fight way back when," Mokona laughed as he joyfully began to play with the Trickmaster's clubs, constantly jumping up and down to dodge each time they were swung at him.

"What the heck is he-" Cody began, only to be interrupted by the impact of one of the monster's clubs, slamming him to a wall as he yelped in pain. As his body felt flat on to the floor, he could only moan at the attack. _Oh, right_, he thought. _We are so screwed._

"Oh come on, what are you doing?" Chimchar shouted off to the half conscious Cody as he made efforts to injure Trickmaster by scratches. "You can't just hit him from down there. You've gotta aim higher."

_I wish_, Cody moaned as he attempted to balance himself from the painful impact. _But I've got my world's laws of gravity screwing with me. There's no way I can fight back._ As his balance was recovered, he continued onward to attacking its legs, but with little luck.

In a matter of minutes, the gang was left nearly wiped out as little to none of their attacks had actually inflicted any remote damage to Trickmaster. The whole fighting group was wiped out and Mokona was too busy cowarding behind a rock to provide any help.

_So, this is how it ends_, Cody thought as Trickmaster slowly began to approach the group, its clubs ready in position. _I always wanted to go out with a bang, but…_

…_I never even found Gwen_

_I mean, she's the only reason I set out on this suicidal adventure in the first place. She looked so sick back on the island._

The Trickmaster began to lift up its clubs as it inched even closer.

… _Then again, Trent was gone too. He's probably out trying to find her to. Probably found her already. Figures. He'll always get the girl._

The Heartless's clubs now sped quickly towards the ground where the heroes lay. While Loudred, Chimchar, and Treecko made efforts to flee the area before the impact came, Cody continued to lay there silently as his mind continued to be immersed in his melancholy thoughts.

_Yeah, he's _still _going to get the girl and in the end, no one will even notice that I died out here in some other world. Some crappy summer this turned out to be._

While his comrades were screaming for him to get out of his suicidal state, the club drew closer and Cody shut his eyes in expectations of a death bringing impact. The immense crackles of MissingNo returned.

…

…

…

_That's weird. Shouldn't I be dead by now?_

Opening up his eyes, Cody was shocked to see that Trickmaster was now flailing around painfully, pixels from its reminisce of MissingNo flailing about as well, as its torso was burning away.

"What the?"

"God, I can't leave you guys at all. Nearly got killed by a Heartless _again_?"

Cody turned his head over a bit for a familiar and relieving face. "Alakazam!" He shouted. "Your magic is actually useful this time!"

"Ah, shut up," he grumbled. "Look, this Heartless appeared to have its weak spot right at its torso and the reaction shows that it's very vulnerable to magic. I think you guys have a better chance to knock it down now. Just aim for the-"

"Horn?" **(4)**

"The _**torso**_! What is with you and that joke?"

The gang was back on their feet again. With the aid of Alakazam's magic, damage was finally being dealt towards the Heartless, and Cody's spirits were a bit lifted up as well, despite gravity still working against him.

_Y'know…_

SLASH!

_I just remembered that I survived my whole life through dumb luck. Like what just happened right here._

SHING!

_Maybe I just gotta think like Treecko did earlier. I just gotta keep trying._

After that, it happened so fast. While everyone else was making efforts to attack the torso, Cody stayed below, but after one quick leap and a final blow, the cackling screams of MissingNo were sounded and the Heartless collapsed to the floor, slowly disintegrating into darkness afterwards.

Cody landed as well, his mind in disbelief. "Wait…did I just defy gravity?"

"About damned time," Alakazam groaned.

"Treecko and Chimchar stared at each other in confusion.

"What is this gravity you speak of?" Chimchar pondered.

"Just forget about it," Cody laughed.

As Trickmaster's matter began to die out, a strange glow came from the wall right across from them. Right in front of them, an outline of a huge keyhole appeared, giving each a confused look. Before any comments could be made, Cody's Keyblade began to react as it began glowing as well. A thick beam of light shot out aiming towards the keyhole. As a large mass of light gathered around the keyhole, the outline disappeared, soon along with the light.

No one had a clue what happened.

All that was left of interest in the room was the pixilated form of MissingNo who quickly showed digital signs of whimpering and cowered away quickly.

Oh, look. He left the evidence too.

* * *

Purugly's eyes twitched insanely. It just wasn't possible.

"How did you get these photos?" She growled at a certain Eevee who grinned brightly in contrast.

"Newspaper crew from the other day left them behind," Treecko responded. "So, what's you reply to this case?"

She breathed heavily, her face full of anxiety. "Very well," she groaned. "Pichu's innocent."

"Really?" Pichu squealed happily, much to Purugly's dismay. "Oh thank you Mr. Cody!" She squealed some more as she lunged towards one of Cody's legs.

"Um, can you let go of my leg?" He laughed awkwardly. "Besides, it's Chimchar and Treecko you should thank. They gathered up the evidence."

In response to Cody, Pichu quickly got off of him and proceeded to glomp the aforementioned duo. Chimchar was laughing playfully, and although Treecko was groaning with both his voice tone and facial expression, he had the same emotion under his façade.

* * *

"So, you guys are heading out?" Chimchar began.

The gang was out on a field, a bit into the outskirts of Treasure Town.

"Yeah. We're traveling around to find a few things. It's not gonna do us good to just stick around here."

"Oh, that's cool." Chimchar continued on as his partner just stood there with his signature nonchalant stance. Chimchar quickly glanced over to Treecko and nudged his shoulder, receiving a glare from the grass type.

"Thanks for helping out back there," Treecko quickly mumbled with a blush.

"No problem," Cody laughed at his new friend's reluctance. "And before I forget, I hope you get your memory back soon."

"Yeah, whatever," he blushed again, gaining a laugh from everyone at the area.

All good byes were said and Cody, Alakazam, Loudred, and Mokona began to walk away.

"It's about time," Cody grumbled. "God, I cannot get used to walking on all fours. Can't wait to get out of this form."

The duo's eyes were raised as they quickly glanced at each other upon hearing Cody's complaints. "Wait!" Chimchar cried out. "W-were you a human?"

The gang's eyebrows were raised this time.

"Treecko just remembers that he was a human before he got amnesia. Do you think you can hel-"

"Well, look at the time," Alakazam quickly cut off Chimchar as he lifted Cody by the ear, much to his dismay. "We really should be off now. Hope to see you again!" They all ran off, giving much confusion to the exploration duo.

And with that, the four rushed back to their Gummi Ship, now with good hopes for the next world they would visit.

* * *

In a world of darkness, a group of villains were meeting once again, staring into the same crystal ball as before.

"And you said that MissingNo would be of use to us?" The horned masquerade exclaimed, unimpressed.

"I just knew it would fail us, but look at who didn't listen," the mechanical-like doll continued.

"Look, he's even sealed up a Keyhole _and _learned how to take down a giant Heartless!" The fat, mustachioed man added.

"…" The blue, digital figure made no comment.

"I do have to admit," Heather added on. "That plan really did turn out horribly. Could've thought that out better."

"All of you shut up! Just cut her some slack, okay?" The whiney teenager retorted.

"Oh please," Heather lashed out. "And _you _can do better?"

"Great, now we have to deal with _two_ annoying interns," the horned masquerade moaned.

"…" Maleficent made no comment.

* * *

**(4) See Chapter 6's beginning author's note.**


	8. The Right to Brawl

**Currently attempting to post more than two chapters a year. Finally got to a world I was greatly anticipating. : )**

**Unfortunately, I absolutely hate Cody's small ounce of angst in this chapter (it was something added in for story flow or something), so I'll understand if you hate it as well.**

**Seth and Bianca are my OCs by the way. I'm usually not very good at writing descriptions for my own characters, hence why I've yet to have a FictionPress account, so I'm not sure if their descriptions are poor or confusing or both. I'll probably put a picture up of the two on my deviantArt account soon, so if you're interested, go check in every once in a while. (link in my profile)**

**And there be some references to Birth by Sleep in this chapter as well! No major spoilers or anything, so you don't need to really skip anything or another. It implies that I'm attempting to make it that far. ;)**

* * *

A whole world had gone by without any clues or hints at what anyone in the group was looking for, but for a strange reason, Cody was satisfied.

"Oh c'mon, cheer up _Ali-chan_," he laughed while throwing the Keyblade in the air constantly, making it disappear every time it began to fall on to him. "We helped out people that needed it. Isn't that enough?"

"It doesn't faze you at all that we just broke the one rule I had on exploring the worlds?"

"But it was fun Ali-chan!" Mokona giggled as he began attempts to catch Cody's Keyblade midair.

"And what's with all this Ali-chan crap?" Alakazam grumbled in annoyance.

"It was Mokona's idea," Loudred replied.

"Me! It was _my_ idea!" The rabbit-like creature giggled once again, finally being able to obtain the Keyblade. He grasped on to it tightly as he fell to the ground, only for Cody to forcefully grab it back with a disapproving look.

"So," Cody began. His composure returned. "When are we going to the next world? I'm dying for some more action!"

Alakazam shook his head. _He takes down _one_ giant Heartless and he suddenly thinks he can take down a million of 'em…_

* * *

The four landed after a brief hour or so, landing on to the pavements surrounding a large stadium. As Cody, Loudred, and Mokona began to walk into the building, Alakazam looked down nervously at the edge of the pavements.

"What's wrong Ali-chan?" Mokona asked, suddenly right on Alakazam's shoulder, startling him and nearly causing him to lose his balance and fall to his doom. He quickly regained balance and glared at Mokona, punching him right off of his shoulder to show his disapproval.

"Um, nothing wrong. Just…don't look at how much this stadium elevates from the ground."

"Still afraid of heights?" Loudred laughed.

"H-hey! Who says I'm afraid of heights?"

"Want me to push you off and prove it?"

"NEVER AGAIN!"

"And then when we got back to the castle, you were stressing out and stuffing yourself with sweets, but it turned out that they were rare candies and-"

"I said, NEVER AGAIN!"

"Geez, there's no need to get so worked up about it," Cody chuckled. "So this place is actually elevated. I mean, how far up can we be? Twelve feet? Twenty? Thirty?"

"The people down below looked like ants."

"… Yeah, we should probably not look at the edge."

"What, are you scared too?" Loudred mocked.

"No, I _really _don't think it's a good idea. " He already had to go through one life threatening drop earlier that summer. Like Alakazam said, "Never again". "Uh, how about we just go into the stadium now?" Cody now flustered. Quickly continued as he began to run into the large building, his companions following shortly afterwards.

The four entered the main area of the stadium quietly, its large and hollowed halls giving off a somewhat eerie sense, implying that the area isn't used to being practically empty and lifeless.

"So, what is this place?" Cody inquired, a bit spooked by the silence.

"Some sort of tournament area," Alakazam answered. "We'll just go search around for a bit and leave, alright?"

"Hey, I can hear my voice!" Mokona laughed gleefully at his discovery of echoes.

They continued on until reaching a small reception desk, papers scattered all across the desk untidily. Right at the corner layed a lone petite bell. It was pretty worn out, probably from being used day after day to call the lazy receptionist to finally return to post. Cody, Alakazam, and Loudred turned to each other, shrugging, leading Cody to decide to ring it.

_DING!_

…

…

…

"U-um, wait! I'm coming, just a sec!"

Following suit, a young woman, probably in her early twenties came dashing towards the desk, her long sky blue hair a ratty mess and her floral white mini-dress covered with a severely stained apron. As she reached the desk, she jumped right into the back and as a moment of awkward silence commenced, she jump right up to a sweet receptionist stance, her hair now in a neat braid and her dirty apron hidden away elsewhere.

"Welcome! Are you guys here to sign up for the upcoming tournament?"

"Actually," Cody began. "We were wondering if you've seen-"

"Our Lost and Found is currently empty and there has been no one but staff and our competitors in the building all day. Would you like to sign up for our upcoming tournament?"

"… Are you sure?"

"_Would you like to sign up for our upcoming tournament_?"

…Alright, the way she said that last one was honestly creepy.

Shaking his head in defeat, Alakazam decided to leave while they were ahead, Mokona and Loudred following him to the exit, though Cody decided to stay behind.

"So, what kind of tournaments do you guys hold here?"

The woman giggled. "Seriously?"

What? Was it supposed to be blatantly obvious or something? "Well, we're not really from around here."

She did a quick eye roll. "If you must know, you're currently in Smash Stadium, a small little void in our world that connects to several others. Here, the heroes of those worlds duke it out and beat the crap out of each other for the enjoyment of the sadists of the worlds. So would you like to sign up for our upcoming tournament?"

Cody grinned. "So it's a fighting tournament?"

Alakazam stopped in his tracks. _Oh shit, here comes his ego._

"Yeah, more or less," the lady continued. "So, would you like to sign up for our upcoming tournament?"

_Oh, great…_

"Definitely!"

"Great! Alright, our next tournament is the Newcomer Cup. If you win, you may have a chance of being recruited into our elite group of heroes, the Brawlers. Entering as a group I assume? Great! Alright, our sign-up person is Seth. He's probably over near the restrooms over at the west wing. Just go talk to him if you want to compete."

"…Um, aren't you the sign-up person?"

"I'm just the information receptionist."

"Then why did you keep on asking-"

"_Just do it._"

"Okay, okay," Cody whimpered slightly at the lady's sudden mood change. He proceeded to head to the west wing with his companions reluctantly following. The eerie silence from before soon began to inhabit the room once more.

The receptionist yawned as she jumped out of the desk, grabbing out her apron, to continue her previous task. "Strange," she mumbled. "That kid seemed kind of familiar."

* * *

**SMASH STADIUM**

* * *

"One giant Heartless. Just one giant heartless and you suddenly think you can take anything on?"

"Well it was gigantic _and _a Heartless! I don't know about you, but I really don't think there's anything in this world that can top that. Besides," Cody laughed, his ego growing even larger. "Chicks dig strong guys."

"Hey, it might be fun," Loudred reassured.

"Yeah Ali-chan!"

"Stop calling me Ali-chan!" The psychic type was fuming once again by now. "Have you forgotten why we're out here in the first place?"

"Can't we have some fun in between though?"

"What do you think we are, tourists on vacation? Look, we don't have time for sightseeing. We _need _to find the King as soon as possible!"

"Hey, he's your king, not mine."

"_And_ your friends."

He stopped in his tracks. Silence had now befallen the group and Loudred eyed Alakazam angrily. _Now you've done it._

He eyed him back. _What? I was speaking the truth!_

_Look, just him have some fun in between. It won't be that bad._

_What are you talking about? We don't have time for "fun"! Do _you _think we're tourists on vacation too?_

_No, I'm just saying that where he came from, life was probably boring as hell. Just let him have some fun too._

Alakazam rolled his eyes. _Ugh, don't you see how stupid you're being? This kid's pathetic in battle. Do _you_ think sightseeing will do him good. Worst of all, he suddenly thinks we can go for a damned fighting tournament. I mean, there are limits. If you really think this is the way to go, then-_

"I'm not strong enough for them yet."

Startled at Cody's sudden response, Alakazam and Loudred's argument via thoughts abruptly ended, there eyes now focused on confusion towards Cody rather than glaring at each other.

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't really think I really have what it takes to go through all these worlds to search for them right now. I mean, you've seen how lethal those Pokémon were. It's not just Heartless we have to worry about now, and that just makes it ten times harder.

"I don't know. I've always been a bit of a failure back in my world and right now, I'm doing things I never would have dreamed of being able to do, but if I can't even have the common sense to put on sunscreen during one of the hottest days of summer instead of "getting a tan", what chance do I have? I think I'm just basking in my ego so I think I really can go on. And maybe I want to enter to see if I'm a person worth following through this big mess. I don't know what I'm doing right now, but…"

He turned around and eyed the others as more silence ensued.

Shaking his head after about a minute, he continued walking on. The others stared at each other, pitiful glances exchanged, and then they too continued to walk on.

* * *

The awkwardness met from earlier had all but passed and they continued trekking through the enormous building, forced to check maps every once in a while. When finally finding their destination, they peeked towards the corridors, spotting a young man flipping through several flyers and tacking them up on to the nearby bulletin board manually along with some noise coming from the restrooms right across the hall, probably the cleaning staff.

The others stared at each other quizzically for a bit. Was this that Seth guy? He didn't look much older from Cody. They turned back towards the guy

He had short, bright orange hair, clashing with the small yellow streak painted down the middle, and was endowed with a pair of loosely fit dirty jeans, red sneakers, maroon fingerless gloves, and a maroon t-shirt, covered up tight by a sleeveless white longcoat.

… Was this seriously that Seth guy?

They eyed each other again. Maybe this was just an intern for the summer and the guy they were looking for left while they were searching for him?

A loud bang could be heard from the men's restroom followed by an annoyed groan.

"Yo, Seth, uh, one of the toilets is, um, _really_ clogged. Uh…can you get someone else to do this?" _Weird_, Cody thought. _That guy sounds kind of familiar._

The young man groaned and without his head leaving the bulletin board he was focused on, shouted back. "You guys are the cleaning slaves. Just grab a plunger and deal with it yourself!"

… Seriously? This was seriously the guy?

They eyed each other again and then at Cody. Sighing in defeat, he proceeded to nervously walk up to the guy, noticing that he wasn't even that far off from his own height, if not shorter.

"Um-"

"Whatever you guys broke, I don't care," Seth responded, his face never leaving the bulletin board. "Just move that display table over there. It's been uneven for years and it's really starting to bug me now."

Cody turned his head towards the restroom doors, noticing an unevenly placed cubed stand in between the two. He awkwardly turned back to Seth with a confused face and then back to his friends, who did nothing but shrug their shoulders.

"God, don't just stand there. Get it done already," Seth groaned.

Cody rolled his eyes. Mind as well.

He slowly walked over to one side. The stand wasn't really that big. It wasn't going to take much to move it. He wasn't Harold after all.

…

…

…

_Dang, what's in this tiny thing? Rocks? I can't even get it to budge!_

…

…

…

_Oh god, this isn't worth it._

"It's too heavy," Cody sighed in exhaustion. "Can you get someone else to do it?"

Seth lay motionless, the small little errand he had been taking so much care into doing for the past few minutes coming to a halt. "What?" He snarled gently. Oh boy, this wasn't going to be good, is it? He's one of those short guys with short tempers, isn't he? "What did you say?"

"Uh…it's too heavy?"

"It's too heavy?" His eyes were shut tight and his fists were shaking in fury as he turned over to Cody, who in turn, winced at the upcoming scolding. "**I've been training each and every one of you for years and you can't even move a stupid display table? Are you asking for a death wish? If you can't even move this one thing, what the hell are you even doing here? I outta up your training sessions to six hours, get everyone else pissed at you just because you can't even move a stupid tiny table!**"

His eyes opened, meeting those of the freaked out teen. "Oh, thought you were one of them. My bad," he said nonchalantly before turning his back towards Cody and began working on the bulletin board once again.

Awkward silence.

Seth turned his head around. "You're still here?"

"…"

He sighed as his body turned over towards the still freaked out teen once again. "May I help you?"

"Uh," Cody stammered. Man, he was nearly as scary as Duncan back there. "My friends and I were looking to enter the Newcomer Tournament."

More silence.

"Uh, excuse me?"

Seth began to laugh, the volume elevating each lasting second, earning a crestfallen look on Cody. "You honestly think that you can stand a chance in a tournament here?" He laughed, wiping off a tear.

"We're entering as a group," Alakazam added on as he walked over, annoyed. He didn't really want to join, but even he was ticked at Seth's reaction.

"Oh, and you've got Pokémon too?" Seth continued, his laughter starting to die down a bit. "How effective and original. There's plenty of Pokémon in the elite Brawlers group as there is and we use generic guys like you for _assist items _on the field."

Yup, definitely ticking him off.

"Besides," Seth eyed Cody again. "You can't even move that little display table over there? You honestly think you can survive a whole tournament?"

"Hey, there's gotta be rocks or something in that thing. I'd like to see _you_ move it," Cody retorted angrily.

"My pleasure," he laughed cooly as he boastfully walked over to make an attempt himself.

…

…

…

It wasn't budging.

"Uh, that was just a bluff," Seth laughed weakly as the others gave unimpressed glares at him. "Let me try again."

…

…

…

It still wasn't budging despite the extra effort he gave this time around through pushing his back against it and he was even growing exhausted. Seth nervously stared over at the group he was ridiculing moments ago.

Unimpressed glares.

"Alright, I see your point," he groaned as he lifted himself to a standing stance, rubbing his back in genuine pain. "But you still can't enter. Not without a qualification pass."

"…What?" The group all said in unison.

"It's this new system we have here so we don't get just any random Joe to enter the Newcomer Tournaments," Seth explained. "Select staff members has to see you actually pulling off a decent fight or self defense or whatever before forking one over. Only then are you allowed to enter."

"But that lady over at the desk didn't say anything about this," Loudred boomed.

"Bianca?" Seth groaned, shaking his head in disdain. "Of course she wouldn't. She's probably still ticked that I wouldn't let her into the Brawlers group." He lifted his head and faced the group once again, a devious grin plastered on his face. "I don't suppose you guys have a pass?"

…

"Didn't think so," he laughed. "Now get out of here."

The gang grumbled in annoyance as they left the scene, leaving Seth standing, grinning deviously at his victory at pushing away unwanted noobs. He then stared over back at the cubed table, still annoyed at its defiance towards force earlier. Checking to make sure that the group was no longer in sight, he once again tried to push the table over, huffing and groaning furiously, until admitting defeat again and collapsing to the ground in frustration.

"Can we _please_ get someone else to clean this shit?" the employee from earlier shouted again.

"Argue and you're fired!"

* * *

"You do not want to know how much I wanted to punch that kid in the face," Alakazam complained. "I mean, what the hell was with that guy? And he looked happy when we showed we didn't have one of those stupid passes?"

"Don't forget his impressive attempt at pushing that super table," Cody added.

"He was a jerk face," Mokona whined.

The group of four was just leaving the stadium. Only now were people starting to pile in, although it was still quite few. As they continued to complain, several passersby looked on nervously and Bianca groaned. It looked like her boss turned down a promising bunch of fighters again. Well, at least _she _thought they seemed promising, but of course what she thought never mattered.

They had now exited the building. No matter the fact that the inside was started to get populated, it was still barren and empty out there, a good place for them to blow off some more steam.

"I mean, how old was that kid? He was even shorter than _Cody_ for crying out loud! He really thinks he can just treat us like dirt like that?"

"And he said that he trained those Brawler guys? I feel bad for them now. I'd hate to be yelled at by some midget everyday."

"He was a still a jerk face!"

Cody sighed as he continued on the path, leaving his friends behind to continue to let out their outrage to absolutely no one.

He thought back to what he had said about himself earlier and started to stare at the ground somberly. He was honest when he had said that. Was he ready to go through this big adventure? He's learned to defy the laws of gravity, but even then the battle had been tough and they were going to get much tougher. This was the chance to train and get pumped and ready for newer hardships as they came. Would he even be considered ready now?

His eyes continued to stare down on to the ground, his mind distracted of anything else. He continued to slowly walk on while his friends stayed behind to rant some more, his ears adrift from their noise and his common sense to make sure he didn't walk all the way to the edge temporarily lost. Through that, he ended up bumping into someone.

"Sorry," he mumbled, assuming that he had bumped right into someone looking forward to entering the stadium. When no response was heard, he slowly tilted up his head…

And nearly jizzed in his pants.

In front of him was a large figure of many blue hues, its skin like digitalized crystal, and its face stern as rock. Cody's eyes were wide open as he stared at the intimidating figure. Was this guy bad news or good?

"…"

"Uh, no, I don't have a pass," Cody replied, still terrified. **(Please ignore the fact that the figure said nothing :D)**

"…"

"Yeah, the jerkass wouldn't let us in without one." His voice started to sound more confident and his shoulders loosened up slightly. This strange being probably meant no harm.

"…"

"Yeah, but I can't really get a pass easily though."

The figure held out its hand and slowly digitalized a pass, its arm then reaching over down to Cody, the geek's eyes widening in delight.

"Ohmigod, thanks!"

Right then, he dashed straight over to his friends, still left complaining about Seth and little to no progress made on leaving the area,

"Guys!" He shouted happily as he abruptly approached them. Before any of them could ask what had gotten him so cheerful, he lifted up the Entry Pass for them all to see, surprised eyes abound at the sight.

"How did you get that?" Loudred wondered aloud.

"I got it from the guy back there. There must've been an extra or something."

"You got it from the Invisible Man? !" Mokona gasped in awe.

"Invisible Man? What the heck are you talking about?" He turned around and instead of seeing the near frightening figure from just a minute earlier, saw nothing but the sky and ground.

* * *

Seth's right eye twitched rapidly as he held the pass close to his face. It was fake right? It had to be!

It wasn't.

"How did you get this thing? !"

"Someone gave it to us," Alakazam replied flatly.

"B-but all the other staff members already got rid of their's… You didn't get this from Bianca did you? Anything from her isn't legit!"

"No."

"…"

"We get to enter to tournament, right?"

The shaking of his arms stopped as another thought processed to his head, his signature smirk replacing his bewildered expression.

"I'd love to put you in guys," he began, his once tense now more lax and sarcastic. "But I'm afraid you guys are way to late to participate. I mean, it's in an hour from now. You're free to enter in the next Newcomer Tournament which is in…three months!"

"WHAT? !" They all shouted.

"You're kidding?" Cody stammered. "Y-you said earlier that we could get in if we had one."

"Did I?" Seth replied, still with the same satisfied smirk.

"Oh my gosh Seth, just let the poor guys in already!"

Everyone turned around at the sound of the new voice and their eyes met the information receptionist from much earlier.

"There's only one other decent guy that's entering. What do you have to lose?"

"Stay out of this Bianca," Seth groaned.

"Oh come on Seth," Bianca replied with another groan. "I honestly don't see why you're so against this. I know you mean well with the whole Newcomer Tournament Entry Pass thing, but can you at least let the people that you don't need to worry about in without 'em?"

"How how would _you_ know how good they are?"

"If you forgot, I'm the only staff member around here that has any _good_ amount of fighting training. I know if they're promising when I see them."

"Good training," Seth scoffed. "Are you talking about hanging around with that good for nothing dead trainer of yours?"

"**Zack is not dead, so stop bad mouthing him**!" Bianca exploded, silencing the whole room and ending any further comments from Seth. "Just let them in," she said again, staring menacingly at the teen.

With a scared look on his face, Seth stared over at the gang, their expressions looking equally as startled, and nodded. "Lockers are over at the end of the east wing. You've got about forty-five minutes before the tournament starts. The match schedule will be up in the last en minutes beforehand."

The group silently left, leaving Bianca to continue staring menacingly at the hot-headed carrot head, who in turn just gazed nervously into her eyes. Quickly mouthing a "sorry" and rushing out of the place, Bianca continued staring, but her eyes loosened and her face looked more forgiving.

* * *

Cody and company timidly entered the locker room, hearing much noise from the inside, mostly murmurs and such. Probably just a large conversation.

"I'm telling you Samus," the voice of a pretty young boy musing. "We haven't seen Link, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Mario, and the like for a long time. Something is definitely up."

"Look, Pit," the voice of a young woman sighed. "This place is a hub between _heroes_ of the worlds. I'm pretty sure they've just got too much on their hands back at their places or something."

"_All_ of them?" Another young boy scoffed.

"Shut up Red," the woman said again. "We get it that you're just a random skilled Pokémon Trainer that has nothing to do in his own world. Just stop acting shocked that _other _Brawlers have things to do in their own worlds too."

"Samus," the first voice began again. "Look around you, it's just the three of us now. How can you not wonder."

"Seriously," the third voice continued. "It was already weird enough when Link and Zelda stopped appearing, but then Marth and Roy became no shows too, then Kirby, Captain Falcon, Fox and his crew, Ness, and then _everyone_ from Mario's world stopped showing. Do you know how many people were in his world?"

"And have you noticed the Nana and Popo have been hanging around in this world a lot more than usual. It'd like they never go back to their own. Isn't _that_ suspicious?"

"Maybe they just decided that the mountains here were more fun to climb?"

"Uh, excuse us…"

The three individuals halted their argument and motioned over to Cody, Alakazam, Loudred, and Mokona. One was a young brunette boy in the outfit of an angel, another in full red and gold armor, a green plate covering up any glimpse of her face, and the last was nothing more than a kid around Cody's age in a red baseball cap and short sleeved jacket.

"Oh," the woman started. "You guys must be here for the Newcomer Tournament," she shook her head. "Finally got more _remotely_ normal looking characters. The whole thing's being filled up with freaks today."

"I'm Pit by the way," the angelically clothed boy said. "The one in armor is Samus and he's Red."

"Uh, I'm Cody."

"Alakazam."

"Loudred!"

"And I'm Mokona!"

"I'm assuming that you're those Brawlers guy?" Cody asked.

"Yeah," Red answered. "At least a small fraction of them." Samus glared over.

"Well," Samus sighed, facing the gang again. "I'm afraid you guys are out of odds. No offense, but that Cloud guy is the one everyone thinks will win."

"Cloud?"

"Yeah, he's this antisocial looking guy and he's got _really _pointy hair."

The conversation continued on between the two parties and in between, Cody snuck off from each of them to head straight to the restrooms.

As he began getting closer to the restroom door, shouts from inside could be heard, a heated argument occurring inside. Why did those voices sound so familiar?

Cody pushed the door open and witnessed the cause of the argument.

"I am not touching that stall. Do you think I'm made to work this kind of crap? !"

"I already cleaned up nineteen stalls today. How much _you _got done?"

_Oh. My. God._

He started laughing.

"What? !" Chris and Chef shouted as they turned towards his direction, their eyes widening at the sight.

"Cody? !"

"Pipsqueak? !"

"Well this is ironic," Cody said, attempting to hide back the giant burst of laughter forming in him.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Chris asked frantically as he grabbed hold of the teen's shoulders, startling him slightly. "Wait, forget that, just **get us the heck out of here**."

"… No."

"WHAT? !" The two exclaimed, Chris backing off as well.

"You two have put us through crap this whole summer and karma's finally doing its duty. Now why would I want interfere with karma?"

"Karma ain't got nothing on me," Chef growled as he began to motion over menacingly towards Cody.

"Wouldn't you get in trouble with Seth if you beat me up? After all, I am a _competitor_."

Their jaws dropped.

"Now if you excuse me, there's something I've been holding in for a while." His face all smiles, he entered the stall that came before the one the two had been arguing about earlier.

"Are you kidding me? !" Chris shouted. "I just washed that stall!"


End file.
